Molecularly imprinted polypyrrole based sensor for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein

Vilma Ratautaite; Raimonda Boguzaite; Ernestas Brazys; Almira Ramanaviciene; Evaldas Ciplys; Mindaugas Juozapaitis; Rimantas Slibinskas; Mikhael Bechelany; Arunas Ramanavicius

doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2021.139581

Molecularly imprinted polypyrrole based sensor for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein

Electrochim Acta. 2022 Jan 20:403:139581. doi: 10.1016/j.electacta.2021.139581. Epub 2021 Nov 16.

Authors

Vilma Ratautaite^{1

2}, Raimonda Boguzaite^{1

2}, Ernestas Brazys², Almira Ramanaviciene², Evaldas Ciplys^{2

3}, Mindaugas Juozapaitis^{2

3}, Rimantas Slibinskas^{2

3}, Mikhael Bechelany⁴, Arunas Ramanavicius^{5

2}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Nanotechnology, Department of Functional Materials and Electronics, Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Sauletekio av. 3, Vilnius LT-10257, Lithuania.
² NanoTechnas - Center of Nanotechnology and Materials Science at Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, Vilnius University, Naugarduko str. 24, LT-03225, Vilnius, Lithuania.
³ Institute of Biotechnology, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Sauletekio av. 7, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania.
⁴ Institut Européen des Membranes, IEM, UMR 5635, University of Montpellier, CNRS, ENSCM, 34090 Montpellier, France.
⁵ Department of Physical Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, Vilnius University, Naugarduko str. 24, Vilnius LT-03225 Lithuania.

Abstract

This study describes the application of a polypyrrole-based sensor for the determination of SARS-CoV-2-S spike glycoprotein. The SARS-CoV-2-S spike glycoprotein is a spike protein of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that recently caused the worldwide spread of COVID-19 disease. This study is dedicated to the development of an electrochemical determination method based on the application of molecularly imprinted polymer technology. The electrochemical sensor was designed by molecular imprinting of polypyrrole (Ppy) with SARS-CoV-2-S spike glycoprotein (MIP-Ppy). The electrochemical sensors with MIP-Ppy and with polypyrrole without imprints (NIP-Ppy) layers were electrochemically deposited on a platinum electrode surface by a sequence of potential pulses. The performance of polymer layers was evaluated by pulsed amperometric detection. According to the obtained results, a sensor based on MIP-Ppy is more sensitive to the SARS-CoV-2-S spike glycoprotein than a sensor based on NIP-Ppy. Also, the results demonstrate that the MIP-Ppy layer is more selectively interacting with SARS-CoV-2-S glycoprotein than with bovine serum albumin. This proves that molecularly imprinted MIP-Ppy-based sensors can be applied for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus proteins.

Keywords: COVID-19; Conducting polymers; Electrochemical determination of virus proteins; Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs); Polypyrrole (Ppy); SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein; Thin layers.