A poly(thiophene acetic acid)/Au/poly(methylene blue) nanostructured interface was electrochemically assembled step-by-step on screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCE) for label-free detection of p53 protein. The initial electrical conductive properties of the polymeric interface were increased with an additional layer of poly(methylene blue) electropolymerized in the presence of gold nanoparticles. The nano-immunosensing architecture was prepared by covalent immobilization of anti-p53 antibodies as bioreceptors through the poly(thiophene acetic acid) moieties. The nano-immunosensor assembly was extensively characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry, dynamic and electrophoretic light scattering, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Under optimal conditions, p53 was specifically and selectively detected by square wave voltammetry in a linear range between 1 and 100 ng mL-1 with a limit of detection of 0.65 ng mL-1. In addition, the electrochemical nano-immunosensor detected p53 in spiked human serum samples and colorectal cancer cell lysates, and the results were validated with a standard spectrophotometric method using a paired samples t test, which did not exhibit significant differences between both methods. The resultant p53 nano-immunosensor is simple to assemble, robust, and has the potential for point-of-care biomarker detection applications.
Keywords: Cancer cells; Conductive polymer; Electrochemical detection; Screen-printed electrode; Square wave voltammetry; XPS analysis; p53 protein.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature.