Label-Free, Electrical Biomarker Detection Based on Nanowire Biosensors Utilizing Antibody Mimics as Capture Probes

摘要

Antibody mimic proteins (AMPs) are poly-peptides that bind to their target analytes with high affinity and specificity, just like conventional antibodies, but are much smaller in size (2-5 nm, less than 10kDa). In this report, we describe the first application of AMP in the field of nanobiosensors. In_2O_3 nanowire based biosensors have been configured with an AMP (Fibronectin, Fn) to detect nucleocapsid (N) protein, a biomarker for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Using these devices, N protein was detected at sub-nanomolar concentration in the presence of 44 μM bovine serum albumin as a background. Furthermore, negative control experiment is carried out to confirm the role of AMPs in N protein detection.