Nanomaterial-based electrochemical biosensors for cytochrome c using cytochrome c reductase

Emerging evidences have pointed out that the release of cytochrome c (cyt c) from mitochondria into cytosol is a critical step in the activation of apoptosis. This article presents a novel approach for the detection of mitochondrial cyt c release for the first time using cytochrome c reductase (CcR) immobilized on nanoparticles decorated electrodes. Two kinds of nanomaterial-based biosensor platforms were used: (a) carbon nanotubes (CNT) incorporated polypyrrole (PPy) matrix on Pt electrode and (b) self-assembled monolayer (SAM) functionalized gold nanoparticles (GNP) in PPy-Pt. Scanning electron microscope was used to characterize the surface morphologies of the nanomaterial modified electrodes. Cyclic voltammograms of both the biosensors showed reversible redox peaks at − 0.45 and − 0.34 V vs Ag/AgCl, characteristic of CcR. In comparison, the CcR-CNT biosensor gave a detection limit of 0.5 ± 0.03 μM cyt c, which was 4-fold better than the CcR-GNP biosensor (2 ± 0.03 μM). Moreover, the CcR-CNT biosensor achieved a much larger linear range (1–1000 μM) over the CcR-GNP biosensor (5–600 μM) with 2-fold better sensitivity. The CcR-CNT-PPy-Pt biosensor was further applied to quantify the mitochondrial cyt c released in cytosol of A549 cells upon induction of apoptosis with doxorubicin, the results agreed well with standard western blot analysis.

► A novel nanomaterial-enhanced cyt c biosensor using CcR was reported.
► CcR immobilized on CNT-PPy-Pt and SAM-GNP in PPy-Pt respectively.
► CcR-CNT biosensor exhibited excellent analytical performance over CcR-GNP.
► Cyt c released from the mitochondria of A549 cells were measured.
► The results correlated well with the cell viability and western blot analysis.