Electrochemical sensor to detect neurotransmitter using gold nano-island coated ITO electrode

Parkinson disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the loss of dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter in the substantia nigra. In this study, a simple, rapid and inexpensive method to fabricate gold nano-island film (GNIF) coated ITO electrode has been developed based on electrochemical deposition of Au onto ITO substrate. The nanostructured film surface was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) were used to evaluate the electrochemical behavior of induvidul dopamine and uric acid solution were studied. Moreover, GNIF/ITO electrode was applied to detecte DA in the presence of Bovine Serum Albumin (50 microM) as an interference. These results demonstrate that, interfering component has no effect on the determination of DA at GNIF electrode, hence this GNIF electrode is suitable for the determination of DA with high sensitivity and selectivity. Then, GNIF coated ITO electrode was applied to monitor the electrochemical simultaneous detection of dopamine and uric acid mixtures based on CV and DPV with high sensitivity. GNIF-modified ITO electrode showed a linear range for the determination of dopamine concentration from 0.1 microM to 40 microM in the presence of 50 microM of uric acid. Based on these results, the proposed technique can be a promising method to construct a highly sensitive biosensor as well as highly efficient protein chip.