Effect of spacer length on the performance of peptide-based electrochemical biosensors for protease detection

• DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2017.09.128
• Publication Date: 2017-09-29T02:16:25Z
• Authors: Eva González-Fern...; Matteo Staderini; Nicolaos Avlonitis; Alan F. Murray; Andrew R. Mount; Mark Bradley
• Keywords: Moiety

Peptide-based electrochemical biosensors typically consist of a short peptide sequence, labelled with redox reporter and modified thiol-containing moiety to allow immobilisation onto gold electrode surface. A spacer is often introduced between the thiol group aim promoting enzyme accessibility as well conferring flexibility probe. Herein we report systematic study effect polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based length on performance such in order gain deeper understanding their role optimise peptide-based sensor. Thus, specific endowed varying PEG spacers (PEG-4, PEG-6, PEG-8 PEG-12) were synthesised interrogated by addition both target (trypsin) BSA evaluate analytical performance. An alkyl-based was also assessed compare nature spacer. All proposed probes supported efficient protease detection; however, PEG-6 provided enhanced anti-fouling properties, which highlights vital design probes.