In Vivo Electrochemical Biosensors for Reactive Oxygen Species Detection: A Mini-Review

Abstract

Due to the significance of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in numerous physiological processes including pathogen response, apoptosis, and induction of defense genes, various methods have been developed for their quantitative analysis. However, the conventional methods using exogenous tracers lack the capability to conduct real-time in vivo measurements. The electrochemical biosensors have shown their potentials for in vivo applications with the rapid and reagentless detection processes. In this article, electrochemical biosensors that are capable of making in vivo ROS detections are reviewed. The different configurations of these biosensors with corresponding strategies to enhance sensitivity and selectivity are discussed in detail. With further studies to promote the biosensor performance, these devices promise to provide more facile ways for ROS research in life sciences.

Keywords:

• Hydrogen peroxide
• In vivo electrochemical biosensors
• Reactive oxygen species
• Review
• Superoxide anion

Acknowledgments

This paper was submitted as part of a Special Issue on Biosensors organized by Dr. Yu Lei of the University of Connecticut.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81071229 and 91017013), Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20100142110002), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Hust, 2010ZD005), and the Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, Southeast University.