Gold nanoparticles/single-stranded DNA-reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites based electrochemical biosensor for highly sensitive detection of cholesterol

Abstract

High density and uniform distribution of the gold nanoparticles functionalized single-stranded DNA modified reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites were obtained by non-covalent interaction. The positive gold nanoparticles prepared by phase inversion method exhibited good dimensional homogeneity and dispersibility, which could readily combine with single-stranded DNA modified reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites by electrostatic interactions. The modification of single-stranded DNA endowed the reduced graphene oxide with favorable biocompatibility and provided the preferable surface with negative charge for further assembling of gold nanoparticles to obtain gold nanoparticles/single-stranded DNA modified reduced graphene oxide nanocomposites with better conductivity, larger specific surface area, biocompatibility and electrocatalytic characteristics. The as-prepared nanocomposites were applied as substrates for the construction of cholesterol oxidase modified electrode and well realized the direct electron transfer between the enzyme and electrode. The modified gold nanoparticles could further catalyze the products of cholesterol oxidation catalyzed by cholesterol oxidase, which was beneficial to the enzyme-catalyzed reaction. The as-fabricated bioelectrode exhibited excellent electrocatalytic performance for the cholesterol with a linear range of 7.5−280.5 μmol·L⁻¹, a low detection limit of 2.1 μmol·L⁻¹, good stability and reproducibility. Moreover, the electrochemical biosensor showed good selectivity and acceptable accuracy for the detection of cholesterol in human serum samples.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

reduced graphene oxide / gold nanoparticles / electrochemical biosensor / cholesterol oxidase / cholesterol

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51773085, 52071171), the Liaoning Province Doctor Start-up Fund (Grant No. 20170520282) and the Doctor Start-up Fund of Liaoning University (Grant No. a280008020), research fund pre-declaration project of Liaoning University (Grant No. LDGY2019001), teaching reform research project of Liaoning University (Grant Nos. JG2018YB20, LNDXJG20183013, JG2020ZSWT022), Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program—Pan Deng Scholars (Grant No. XLYC1802005), Liaoning BaiQianWan Talents Program (Grant No. LNBQW2018B0048), Natural Science Fund of Liaoning Province for Excellent Young Scholars (Grant No. 2019-YQ-04), and Key Project of Scientific Research of the Education Department of Liaoning Province (Grant No. LZD201902), the Young Scientific and Technological Talents Project of the Department of Education of Liaoning Province (Grant Nos. LQN201903 and LQN202008), the Foundation for Young Scholars of Liaoning University (Grant No. LDQN2019007).

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-021-2112-4 and is accessible for authorized users.

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