Electrochemical DNA biosensor based on conducting polyaniline nanotube array

Anal Chem. 2007 Jul 1;79(13):5111-5. doi: 10.1021/ac070639m. Epub 2007 May 27.

Abstract

Most of the recent developments in ultrasensitive detection of nucleic acid are based on the gold nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes as a medium of signal amplification. Here, we present an ultrasensitive electrochemical nucleic acid biosensor using the conducting polyaniline (PANI) nanotube array as the signal enhancement element. The PANI nanotube array of a highly organized structure was fabricated under a well-controlled nanoscale dimension on the graphite electrode using a thin nanoporous layer as a template, and 21-mer oligonucleotide probes were immobilized on these PANI nanotubes. In comparison with gold nanoparticle- or carbon nanotube-based DNA biosensors, our PANI nanotube array-based DNA biosensor could achieve similar sensitivity without catalytic enhancement, purification, or end-opening processing. The electrochemical results showed that the conducting PANI nanotube array had a signal enhancement capability, allowing the DNA biosensor to readily detect the target oligonucleotide at a concentration as low as 1.0 fM (approximately 300 zmol of target molecules). In addition, this biosensor demonstrated good capability of differentiating the perfect matched target oligonucleotide from one-nucleotide mismatched oligonucleotides even at a concentration of 37.59 fM. This detection specificity indicates that this biosensor could be applied to single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis and single-mutation detection.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aniline Compounds / chemistry*
  • Biosensing Techniques / methods*
  • Catalysis
  • DNA / analysis*
  • Electrochemistry
  • Electrodes
  • Gold / chemistry
  • Graphite / chemistry
  • Mutation / genetics
  • Nanotubes / chemistry*
  • Nanotubes, Carbon / chemistry
  • Oligonucleotide Probes*
  • Particle Size
  • Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / genetics
  • Porosity
  • Sensitivity and Specificity

Substances

  • Aniline Compounds
  • Nanotubes, Carbon
  • Oligonucleotide Probes
  • polyaniline
  • Gold
  • Graphite
  • DNA