This investigation develops a label-free and reagentless aptasensor, based on a capacitive transducer with simple face-to-face electrode pairs. The electrode pairs of the transducer are composed of a gold electrode and an indium tin oxide film with micrometer separation with a double-side polyethylene terephthalate tape. Aptamers and 1-dodecanethiol are modified to form a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) on the gold electrode surfaces, and function as bio-recognition elements and preventers of non-specific protein binding, respectively. Electrochemical characterization results indicate that the SAM also forms an effective insulating layer, which is sufficient for capacitive sensing. The feasibility of the capacitive biosensor is validated using thrombin as a model analyte. The ultra-small value changes of capacitance originating from thrombin binding with the aptamers modified on the biosensor were measured with a home-made capacitance measuring circuit based on switched capacitor (SC) technology. The developed biosensor has detection limits of 1 pM and 10 pM of thrombin in phosphate buffered saline and mimic serum solution, respectively. The linear range for thrombin detection in human serum solution is from 10 pM to 1 μM, with a regression coefficient of 0.98. Additionally, the proposed aptasensor does not have significant levels of non-specific binding of bovine serum albumin and human serum albumin. Accordingly, the combination of SC and SAM bringing capacitive transduction at the forefront of ultrasensitive label-free and reagentless biosensing devices, particularly for point-of-care clinical analysis, which adopts small numbers of biological samples with low analyte concentrations.
Keywords: Aptamer; Capacitive; Self-assembly monolayer (SAM); Switched capacitor (SC); Thrombin.
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