Title : Biosensors for dopamine - receptors, transducers and nano-scale configurations
Abstract:
Neurotransmitters are an important category of substances used inside the nervous system, whose detection with biosensors has been seriously addressed in the last decades. Dopamine, a neurotransmitter from the catecholamine family, was recently discovered to have implications in cardiac arrest or muscle contractions in addition to other neuro-psychiatric implications, being able to be detected in blood, urine and sweat. This review highlights the importance of biosensors as influential tools for dopamine recognition. The first part of this article is related to an introduction in biosensors for neurotransmitters, with focus on dopamine. The regular methods in their detection are expensive and require high expertise personnel. A major direction of evolution of these biosensors have expanded with the integration of active biological materials, suitable for molecular recognition, near to electronic devices. Secondly, for dopamine in particular, the linear detection ranges correspond to the clinical demands, while the biosensors offer an excellent sensitivity and specificity, easier than conventional methods like spectrometry. Thirdly, the applications of novel nanomaterials and biomaterials to these biosensors are discussed. Older generations of metabolism based or enzymatic biosensors could not detect concentrations below the micro-molar range. But new generations of biosensors combine aptamer receptors and organic electrochemical transistor OECT, as transducers. They have pushed the detection limit to pico-molar and even femto-molar range, which fully corresponds to the usual ranges of clinical detection of human dopamine in body humors that cover 0.1-10 nM. In addition, if ten years ago the use of natural dopamine receptors on cell membranes seemed impossible for biosensors, the actual technologies allows co-integrate transistors and vesicles with natural receptors of dopamine, like G protein-coupled receptors. The technology is still complicated, but the uni-molecular detection selectivity is promising.
Audience Take Away
- How electrochemical biosensor can detect one of the most important neurotransmitters - Dopamine (DA)
- Specific Enzymes, Antibodies, Aptamers, Tissue slice, Membranar receptors can be used as DA receptors
- The presented technique can be used to expand the research field of biosensors
- The issue provide a practical solution to co-integrate biomaterials near electronic devices
