Electrochemical Acetylcholine Chloride Biosensor Using an Acetylcholine Esterase Biomimic

Abstract

Pure enzymes are costly and highly sensitive to change in pH, temperature, ionic strength etc. Hence biomimetic or synthetic enzymes could be useful alternatives to such natural proteins. Although the selectivity of a biomimic is somewhat less than that of enzyme, it can be used as a detector element in inexpensive but stable biosensors. An organic compound, 4-[(1E)-ethanehydrazonoyl]benzoic acid, has been designed and synthesized as biomimic for the enzyme acetylcholine esterase. An acetylcholine chloride two-electrode screen-printed sensor was first developed using the immobilized enzyme acetylcholine esterase. The performance of the mimic in the hydrolysis of acetylcholine chloride was then tested with the same transducer by immobilizing the biomimic in place of the enzyme. The response of the sensor constructed using the mimic was comparable to that of the pure acetylcholine esterase enzyme electrode.

Keywords:

• Acetylcholine chloride
• acetylcholine esterase
• biomimic
• enzyme
• screen-printed sensor

The authors are grateful to Cranfield University, UK for donating the DEK-245 printing machine. The author PS is grateful to Department of Biotechnology (DBT), India, for awarding research grants.