Biosensor based on chemically-designed anchorable cytochrome c for the detection of H₂O₂ released by aquatic cells

A novel third generation biosensor was developed based on one-shot adsorption of chemically-modified cytochrome c (cyt c) onto bare gold electrodes. In contrast to the classic approach which consists of attaching cyt c onto an active self-assembled monolayer (SAM) priory chemisorbed on gold, here short-chain thiol derivatives (mercaptopropionic acid, MPA) were chemically introduced on cyt c protein shell via its lysine residues enabling the very fast formation (< 5 min) of an electroactive biological self-assembled monolayer (SAM) exhibiting a quasi-reversible electrochemical behavior and a fast direct electron transfer (ET). The heterogeneous ET rate constant was estimated to be k(s)=1600 s⁻¹, confirming that short anchors facilitate the ET via an efficient orientation of the heme pocket. In comparison, no ET was observed in the case of native and long-anchor (mercaptoundecanoic acid, MUA) modified cyt c directly adsorbed on gold. However, in both cases the ET was efficiently restored upon in-bulk generation of gold nanoparticles which acted as electron shuttles. This observation emphasizes that the lack of electroactivity might be caused by either an inappropriate orientation of the protein (native cyt c) or a critical distance (MUA-cyt c). Finally, the sensitivity of the bare gold electrode directly modified with MPA-cyt c to hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) was evaluated by amperometry and the so-made amperometric biosensor was able to perform real-time and non-invasive detection of endogeneous H₂O₂ released by unicellular aquatic microorganisms, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, upon cadmium exposure.