Portable Vertical Graphene@Au-Based Electrochemical Aptasensing Platform for Point-of-Care Testing of Tau Protein in the Blood

Biosensors (Basel). 2022 Jul 25;12(8):564. doi: 10.3390/bios12080564.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a long-term neurodegenerative disease that poses a serious threat to human life and health. It is very important to develop a portable quantitative device for AD diagnosis and personal healthcare. Herein, we develop a portable electrochemical sensing platform for the point-of-care detection of AD biomarkers in the blood. Such a portable platform integrates nanoAu-modified vertical graphene (VG@Au) into a working electrode, which can significantly improve sensitivity and reduce detection limit due to the large specific surface, excellent electrical conductivity, high stability, and good biocompatibility. The tau protein, as an important factor in the course of AD, is selected as a key AD biomarker. The results show that the linear range of this sensing platform is 0.1 pg/mL to 1 ng/mL, with a detection limit of 0.034 pg/mL (S/N = 3), indicating that this portable sensing platform meets the demand for the detection of the tau protein in the blood. This work offers great potential for AD diagnosis and personal healthcare.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; portable electrochemical aptasensor; tau protein; vertical graphene.

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease* / diagnosis
  • Biosensing Techniques* / methods
  • Electrochemical Techniques / methods
  • Electrodes
  • Gold
  • Graphite*
  • Humans
  • Limit of Detection
  • Neurodegenerative Diseases*
  • Point-of-Care Testing
  • tau Proteins

Substances

  • tau Proteins
  • Gold
  • Graphite

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Longgang District Medical and Health Science and Technology Project (grant no. LGKCYLWS2021000003), Shenzhen Key Laboratory for Nano-Biosensing Technology (grant no. ZDSYS20210112161400001), and the Shenzhen Stability Support Plan (grant no. 20200806163622001). We thank the Instrumental Analysis Center of Shenzhen University (Xili Campus) for providing access to the instruments used in the experiments.