Biosensors employing single-walled carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (SWCNT FETs) offer ultimate sensitivity. However, besides the sensitivity, a high selectivity is critically important to distinguish the true signal from interference signals in a non-controlled environment. This work presents the first demonstration of the successful integration of a novel peptide aptamer with a liquid-gated SWCNT FET to achieve highly sensitive and specific detection of Cathepsin E (CatE), a useful prognostic biomarker for cancer diagnosis. Novel peptide aptamers that specifically recognize CatE are engineered by systemic in vitro evolution. The SWCNTs were firstly grown using the thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method and then were employed as a channel to fabricate a SWCNT FET device. Next, the SWCNTs were functionalized by noncovalent immobilization of the peptide aptamer using 1-pyrenebutanoic acid succinimidyl ester (PBASE) linker. The resulting FET sensors exhibited a high selectivity (no response to bovine serum albumin and cathepsin K) and label-free detection of CatE at unprecedentedly low concentrations in both phosphate-buffered saline (2.3 pM) and human serum (0.23 nM). Our results highlight the use of peptide aptamer-modified SWCNT FET sensors as a promising platform for near-patient testing and point-of-care testing applications.
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