Formation of a Conducting Polymer by Different Electrochemical Techniques and Their Effect on Obtaining an Immunosensor for Immunoglobulin G

Polymers (Basel). 2023 Feb 25;15(5):1168. doi: 10.3390/polym15051168.

Abstract

In this work, a conducting polymer (CP) was obtained through three electrochemical procedures to study its effect on the development of an electrochemical immunosensor for the detection of immunoglobulin G (IgG-Ag) by square wave voltammetry (SWV). The glassy carbon electrode modified with poly indol-6-carboxylic acid (6-PICA) applied the cyclic voltammetry technique presented a more homogeneous size distribution of nanowires with greater adherence allowing the direct immobilization of the antibodies (IgG-Ab) to detect the biomarker IgG-Ag. Additionally, 6-PICA presents the most stable and reproducible electrochemical response used as an analytical signal for developing a label-free electrochemical immunosensor. The different steps in obtaining the electrochemical immunosensor were characterized by FESEM, FTIR, cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and SWV. Optimal conditions to improve performance, stability, and reproducibility in the immunosensing platform were achieved. The prepared immunosensor has a linear detection range of 2.0-16.0 ng·mL-1 with a low detection limit of 0.8 ng·mL-1. The immunosensing platform performance depends on the orientation of the IgG-Ab, favoring the formation of the immuno-complex with an affinity constant (Ka) of 4.32 × 109 M-1, which has great potential to be used as point of care testing (POCT) device for the rapid detection of biomarkers.

Keywords: conducting polymer; electrochemical immunosensor; immunoglobulin G; nanostructure; square wave voltammetry.

Grants and funding

This work was funded by the Millennium Institute on Green Ammonia as Energy Vector—MIGA (ICN2021_023) supported by the Millennium Scientific Initiative of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge, and Innovation (Chile) and Fondecyt (Chile) 1190206; Fondequip EQM150101 and EQM150016. F.M-R., thanks MIGA (Chile)—postdoctoral fellowship and D.R., thank CONICYT (Chile)-PCHA/Doctorado Nacional/21211020.