An electrochemical sensor for indole in plasma based on MWCNTs-chitosan modified screen-printed carbon electrode

Indole is an essential metabolite in intestinal tract. The dysregulation of plasma indole concentration occurred in various diseases. In this study, the indole in plasma was determined directly using electrochemical sensor with multiwall carbon nanotubes-chitosan (MWCNTs-CS) modified screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE). The electrochemical behavior of indole was elucidated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) on the MWCNTs-CS composites modified SPCE (MWCNTs-CS/SPCE). The results showed that the current responses of indole improved greatly due to the high catalytic activity and electron transfer reaction of nano-composites. Under the optimized conditions, the linear range of indole was from 5 to 100 μg L−1 with the detection limit of 0.5 μg L−1 (S/N = 3). This novel electrochemical sensor exhibited acceptable accuracies and precisions with the variations less than 7.3% and 9.0%, respectively. Furthermore, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was utilized to compare with the established electrochemical method for the determination of indole in plasma. The results showed a high correlation between the two methods. At last, the electrochemical sensor was successfully applied to detect the level of indole in plasma samples with satisfactory selectivity and sensitivity. The concentrations of plasma indole in healthy pregnant women and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) patients were 5.3 (4.1-7.0) μg L−1 and 7.2 (4.5-9.4) μg L−1, respectively.