Automated and ultrasensitive point-of-care glycoprotein detection using boronate-affinity enhanced organic electrochemical transistor patch

Quantifying trace glycoproteins in biofluids requires ultrasensitive components, but feedback is not available in the current portable platforms of point-of-care (POC) diagnosis technologies. A compact and ultrasensitive bioelectrochemical patch was based on boronate-affinity amplified organic electrochemical transistors (BAAOECTs) for POC use was developed to overcome this dilemma. Benefit from the cascading signal enhancement deriving from boronate-affinity targeting multiple regions of glycoprotein and OECTs' inherent signal amplification capability, the BAAOECTs achieved a detection limit of 300 aM within 25 min, displaying about 3 orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity compared with the commercial electrochemical luminescence (ECL) kit. By using a microfluidic chip, a microcontroller module, and a wireless sensing system, the testing workflows of the above patch was automated, allowing for running the sample-to-answer pipeline even in a resource-limited environment. The reliability of such portable biosensing platform is well recognized in clinical diagnostic applications of heart failure. Overall, the remarkable enhanced sensitivity and automated workflow of BAAOECTs biosensing platform provide a prospective and generalized design policy for expanding the POC diagnosis capabilities of glycoproteins.

Construction of PEGylated boronate-affinity-oriented imprinting magnetic nanoparticles for ultrasensitive detection of ellagic acid from beverages

Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) can exhibit antibody-level affinity for target molecules. However, the nonspecific adsorption of non-imprinted regions for non-target molecules limits the application range of MIPs. Herein, we fabricated PEGylated boronate-affinity-oriented ellagic acid-imprinting magnetic nanoparticles (PBEMN), which first integrated boronate-affinity-oriented surface imprinting and sequential PEGylation for small molecule-imprinted MIPs. The resultant PBEMN possess higher adsorption capacity and faster adsorption rate for template ellagic acid (EA) molecules than the non-PEGylated control. To prove the excellent performance, the PBEMN were linked with hydrophilic boronic acid-modified/fluorescein isothiocyanate-loaded graphene oxide (BFGO), because BFGO could selectively label cis-diol-containing substances by boronate-affinity and output ultrasensitive fluorescent signals. Based on a dual boronate-affinity synergy, the PBEMN first selectively captured EA molecules by boronate-affinity-oriented molecular imprinted recognition, and then the EA molecules were further labeled with BFGO through boronate-affinity. The PBEMN linked BFGO (PBPF) strategy provided ultrahigh sensitivity for EA molecules with a limit of detection of 39.1 fg mL^-1, resulting from the low nonspecific adsorption of PBEMN and the ultrasensitive fluorescence signal of BFGO. Lastly, the PBPF strategy was successfully employed in the determination of EA concentration in a spiked beverage sample with recovery and relative standard deviation in the range of 96.5 to 104.2% and 3.8 to 5.1%, respectively. This work demonstrates that the integration of boronate-affinity-oriented surface imprinting and sequential PEGylation may be a universal tool for improving the performance of MIPs.

Magnetic boronate modified molecularly imprinted polymers on magnetite microspheres modified with porous TiO2 (Fe3O4@pTiO2@MIP) with enhanced adsorption capacity for glycoproteins and with wide operational pH range

Boronate-affinity based molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are beset by the unsatisfied adsorption capacity and narrow working pH ranges. A magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer containing phenylboronic acid groups was placed on the surface of Fe₃O₄ (magnetite) microspheres coated with porous TiO₂ (Fe₃O₄@pTiO₂@MIP). In contrast to its silica analog (Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@MIP), the flowerlike Fe₃O₄@pTiO₂ offers more binding sites for templates. Thus, the adsorption capacity of the Fe₃O₄@pTiO₂@MIP is strongly enhanced. The strong electron-withdrawing effects of Ti(IV) enable the boronic acid of the MIP to have better affinity for glycoproteins at a wide pH range from 6.0 to 9.0. Consequently, the Fe₃O₄@pTiO₂@MIP exhibits higher adsorption for glycoproteins than Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@MIP in both basic and acidic medium. The Fe₃O₄@pTiO₂@MIPs were eluted with 5% acetic acid aqueous solution containing 30% acetonitrile, and the eluate was analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS. The method was applied to the selective extraction and quantitation of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) in spiked fetal bovine serum (FBS). The linear range is 0.40-10 μg·mL^-1 with the limit of detection of 0.31 μg·mL^-1. In our perception, this work has a wide scope in that is paves the way to a more widespread application of boronate affinity based MIPs for analysis of glycoproteins and related glyco compounds even at moderately acidic pH values. Graphical abstract Schematic presentation of the magnetic boronate modified molecularly imprinted polymer on magnetic spheres modified with porous TiO₂ (Fe₃O₄@pTiO₂@MIP). It was applied to extract glycoprotein in spiked both basic fetal bovine serum (FBS) and acidic urine samples prior to quantitation by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry.