Gold Nanoparticle-Decorated Catalytic Micromotor-Based Aptassay for Rapid Electrochemical Label-Free Amyloid-β42 Oligomer Determination in Clinical Samples from Alzheimer's Patients

Abstract

Micromotor (MM) technology offers a valuable and smart on-the-move biosensing microscale approach in clinical settings where sample availability is scarce in the case of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Soluble amyloid-β protein oligomers (AβO) (mainly AβO₄₂) that circulate in biological fluids have been recognized as a molecular biomarker and therapeutic target of AD due to their high toxicity, and they are correlated much more strongly with AD compared to the insoluble Aβ monomers. A graphene oxide (GO)-gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)/nickel (Ni)/platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) micromotors (MM_GO-AuNPs)-based electrochemical label-free aptassay is proposed for sensitive, accurate, and rapid determination of AβO₄₂ in complex clinical samples such as brain tissue, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and plasma from AD patients. An approach that implies the in situ formation of AuNPs on the GO external layer of tubular MM in only one step during MM electrosynthesis was performed (MM_GO-AuNPs). The AβO₄₂ specific thiolated-aptamer (Apt_AβO42) was immobilized in the MM_GO-AuNPs via Au-S interaction, allowing for the selective recognition of the AβO₄₂ (MM_GO-AuNPs-Apt_AβO42-AβO₄₂). AuNPs were smartly used not only to covalently bind a specific thiolated-aptamer for the design of a label-free electrochemical aptassay but also to improve the final MM propulsion performance due to their catalytic activity (approximately 2.0× speed). This on-the-move bioplatform provided a fast (5 min), selective, precise (RSD < 8%), and accurate quantification of AβO₄₂ (recoveries 94-102%) with excellent sensitivity (LOD = 0.10 pg mL^-1) and wide linear range (0.5-500 pg mL^-1) in ultralow volumes of the clinical sample of AD patients (5 μL), without any dilution. Remarkably, our MM-based bioplatform demonstrated the competitiveness for the determination of AβO₄₂ in the target samples against the dot blot analysis, which requires more than 14 h to provide qualitative results only. It is also important to highlight its applicability to the potential analysis of liquid biopsies as plasma and CSF samples, improving the reliability of the diagnosis given the heterogeneity and temporal complexity of neurodegenerative diseases. The excellent results obtained demonstrate the analytical potency of our approach as a future tool for clinical/POCT (Point-of-care testing) routine scenarios.