A novel electrochemical DNA biosensor based on zinc oxide （ZnO） nanoparticles and multi-walled carbon nanotubes （MWNTs） for DNA immobilization and enhanced hybridization detection is presented. The MWNTs/nano ZnO/chitosan composite film modified glassy carbon electrode （MWNTs/ZnO/CHIT/GCE） was fabricated and DNA probes were immobilized on the electrode surface. The hybridization events were monitored by differential pulse voltammetry （DPV） using methylene blue （MB） as an indicator. The sensor can effectively discriminate different DNA sequences related to PAT gene in the transgenic corn, with a detection limit of 2.8× 10^-12 mol/L of target sequence.
Gold nanoparticles (nano Au)/titanium dioxide (TiO2) hollow microsphere membranes were prepared on the carbon paste electrode (CPE) for enhancing the sensitivity of DNA hybridization detection. The immobilization of nano Au and TiO2 microsphere was investigated with cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The hybridization events were monitored with EIS us-ing [Fe(CN)6]3-/4- as indicator. The sequence-specific DNA of the 35S promoter from cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV35S) gene was detected with this DNA electrochemical sensor. The dynamic detection range was from 1.0×10-12 to 1.0×10-8 mol/L DNA and a detection limit of 2.3×10-13 mol/L could be ob-tained. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the terminator of nopaline synthase (NOS) gene from the real sample of a kind of transgenic soybean was also satisfactorily detected.
ZHANG YongChun, YANG Tao, ZHOU Na, ZHANG Wei & JIAO Kui College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266042, China
Heparin is a polysaccharide of glycosaminoglycan class, which consists of repeating disaccharide units of iduronic/glucuronic acid and glucosamine residues with many biological functions. Many methods have been proposed for the detection of heparin, including UV-Vis spectrophotometry, the light scattering technique, HPLC and electro phoresis and flow injection analysis, etc.. But there are few reports about the detection of heparin by means of an electrochemical method. Electroanalytical methods are useful tools in bioanalytical chemistry because of their advantages, such as their instrumental simplicity, moderate cost and portability. The binding reactions of organic molecules with biomolecules such as DNA and proteins have been widely studied. In acidic solution, heparin is highly negatively charged due to the dissociation of the sulfate and carboxyl groups in its molecule, which can easily interact with cationic dyes. Based on this principle, in this work, a new electrochemical method for the determination of heparin was developed based on the interaction of heparin with brilliant cresyl blue（BCB）.
Carboxyl was formed on the surface of glassy carbon electrode(GCE) by electrochemical oxidation. Ethylenediamine(En) was used as the arm molecule to link carboxyl with dsDNA using 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide hydrochloride(EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide(NHS) as the activators to prepare dsDNA modified electrode(dsDNA/En/GCE). It was shown that dsDNA could be covalently immobilized on the surface of GCE. ssDNA modified electrode(ssDNA/En/GCE) was obtained via the thermal denaturation of dsDNA/En/GCE. The dsDNA/En/GCE and ssDNA/En/GCE were characterized by voltammetry with methylene blue(MB) as the indicator. The results indicated that the currents of the redox peaks of MB at ssDNA/En/GCE were larger than those at dsDNA/En/GCE, and the currents of the redox peaks at En/GCE were the smallest. The peak-currents of MB at the DNA modified electrode had good reproducibility after multi-denaturation and hybridization cycles.
The interaction of phenosafranine （PSF） with a glycosaminoglycans of heparin （Hep） in aqueous solution has been characterized by UV-Vis absorption spectrophotometry and cyclic voltammetry in pH 1.5 Britton-Robinson （B-R） buffer solution. The addition of Hep caused decrease of the absorbance of PSF at 532 nm and the redox peak current of PSF. The study showed that an supramolecular complex of PSF-Hep was formed because of the electrostatic attraction of negatively charged Hep with the positively charged PSF, which resulted in the decrease of the equilibrium concentration of PSF in solutions, and the decrease of the absorbance or the peak current of PSF. The stoichiometry of the Hep/PSF complex was further calculated by voltammetric data with the result of 1：1 complex.
