An acetylcholinesterase biosensor for determination of low concentrations of Paraoxon and Dichlorvos

The characterization of an economic and ease-to-use carbon paste acetylcholinesterase (AChE) based biosensor to determine the concentration of pesticides Paraoxon and Dichlorvos is discussed. AChE hydrolyses acetylthiocholine (ATCh) in thiocoline (TC) and acetic acid (AA). When AChE is immobilized into a paste carbon working electrode kept at +410 mV vs. Ag/AgCl electrode, the enzyme reaction rate using acetylthiocholine chloride (ATCl) as substrate is monitored as a current intensity. Because Paraoxon and Dichlorvos inhibit the AChE reaction, the decrease of the current intensity, at fixed ATCl concentration, is a measure of their concentration. Linear calibration curves for Paraoxon and Dichlorvos determination have been obtained. The detection limits resulted to be 0.86 ppb and 4.2 ppb for Paraoxon and Dichlorvos, respectively, while the extension of the linear range was up 23 ppb for the former pesticide and up to 33 ppb for the latter. Because the inhibited enzyme can be reactivated when immediately treated with an oxime, the biosensor reactivation has been studied when 1,1'-trimethylene bis 4-formylpyridinium bromide dioxime (TMB-4) and pyridine 2-aldoxime methiodide (2-PAM) were used. TMB-4 resulted more effective. The comparison with the behavior of similar AChE based biosensors is also presented.