Self-assembled peptides-modified flexible field-effect transistors for tyrosinase detection

Abstract

Summary Flexible biosensors have received intensive attention for real-time, non-invasive monitoring of cancer biomarkers. Highly sensitive tyrosinase biosensors, which are important for melanoma screening, remained a hurdle. Herein, high-performance tyrosinase-sensing field-effect transistor-based biosensors (bio-FETs) have been successfully achieved by self-assembling nanostructured tetrapeptide tryptophan–valine–phenylalanine–tyrosine (WVFY) on n-type metal oxide transistors. In the presence of target tyrosinase, the phenolic hydroxyl groups in WVFY are rapidly converted to benzoquinone with the consumption of protons, which could be detected potentiometrically by bio-FETs. As a result, the WVFY-modified bio-FETs exhibited an ultra-low detection limit of 1.9 fM and an optimal detection range of 10 fM to 1 nM toward tyrosinase sensing. Furthermore, flexible devices fabricated on ∼2.9-μm-thick polyimide (PI) substrates illustrated robust mechanical flexibility, which could be attached to human skin conformally. These achievements hold promise for wearable melanoma screening and provide designing guidelines for detecting other important cancer biomarkers with bio-FETs.

Peptide-Based Hydrogels: New Materials for Biosensing and Biomedical Applications

“…These results are very promising for developing low-fouling biosensors, which is very useful for complex biological solutions. Huihui et al used tetrapeptide tryptophan-valine-phenylalanine-tyrosine (WVFY) to construct a high-performance tyrosinase-sensing transistor-based (n-type metal oxide) biosensor (bio-FETs) [ 70 ]. This biosensor could rapidly detect the target tyrosinase through the fast conversion of the phenolic hydroxyl groups of the tetrapeptide to benzoquinone, which needs the consumption of protons and is potentiometrically detectable by the bio-FETs.…”

Point-of-care electrochemical testing of biomarkers involved in inflammatory and inflammatory-associated medical conditions

“…Furthermore, the extraordinary development in the field of microfluidics allows the detection of traces of biomarkers in small volumes of biological samples because it involves a pre-concentration step before detection [ 15 , 30 ]. Numerous approaches have been published regarding the detection of a large number of biomarkers expressed in cancers using miniaturized devices or sensors suitable for miniaturization [ 15 , 31 , 32 ]. The aspect related to miniaturization is decisive when the development of POCT or point-of-use (POU) devices for decentralized detection, in the field, at the patient’s bedside is aimed.…”

Flexible engineering of advanced phase change materials

“…However, the flexibility of the supporting materials will be gradually destroyed with the increase of the content of PCMs. This is because PCMs tend to display a rigid state when solidified; the presence of a rigid component will restrict the flexible movement of supporting materials ( Lin et al., 2022 ; Petruo et al., 2021 ; Ren et al., 2022 ). Currently, the two main methods for developing flexible thermal regulation systems based on PCMs are encapsulating PCMs into flexible supporting materials, which is a physical approach based on capillarity or hydrogen bonding, and grafting PCMs onto the supporting materials, which is a chemical approach based on grafting reaction.…”