A Shear horizontal surface acoustic wave biosensor for a rapid and specific detection of d-serine

• DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2015.11.099
• Publication Date: 2015-11-28T16:48:56Z
• Authors: F. Di Pietrantonio; M. Benetti; D. Cannatà; E. Verona; M. Girasole; M. Fosca; S. Dinarelli; M. Staiano; V.M. Marzullo; A. Capo; A. Varriale; S. D’Auria
• Keywords: Biomolecule

d-serine is an amino acid that has an important role in the regulation of N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) signalling in the central nervous system. In fact, it acts as an endogenous co-agonist molecule for the NMDA receptor activation. Since an abnormal body level of d-amino acids is usually associated to different neurological diseases, it appears evident that it is of high interest to develop a fast and specific biosensor for the determination of d-serine. In this work, we report on the design and development of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) biosensor to detect the level of d-serine. The SAW-biosensor is based on the utilization of an inactivated form of the d-serine dehydratase isolated from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a biomolecule that is able to specifically bind d-serine. In particular, we produced a PLP-reduced d-serine dehydratase biomolecule that was still able to bind d-serine and not to transform it into the product. The binding event between the "inactivated" d-serine dehydratase and d-serine was monitored by SAW delay-lines.