Peptide–protein microarrays and surface plasmon resonance detection: Biosensors for versatile biomolecular interaction analysis

Biosensors in microarray format provide promising tools for high-throughput analyses of complex samples. Although they are able to detect, quantify and characterize a multitude of compounds, most of the available devices are specialized in the analysis of one type of interaction, limiting their application to a define area. The aim of our work was to develop and characterize versatile protein (or peptide) microarrays suitable for the simultaneous analysis of a large panel of biological interactions. Our system involved a simple procedure to immobilized proteins or peptides, based on pyrrole electropolymerization, and ligand binding was detected by imaging the surface plasmon resonance. We demonstrated its suitability in three different contexts, i.e. humoral response characterization, ion binding analysis and cell detection. This work evidences the potentiality of this approach which allows multiparametric, high-throughput and label-free analysis of biological samples suitable for the detection of compounds as various as proteins, ions or cells and the characterization of their interaction with peptides or proteins.