Bilirubin oxidases in bioelectrochemistry: features and recent findings

Bilirubin oxidases, a sub class of the Multicopper oxidases family, were discovered in 1981 by Tanaka and Murao (Murao and Tanaka, 1981) and first used for the detection of bilirubin. Since 2001 and the pioneering work of Tsujimura, these BODs have attracted a lot of attention for the reduction of O2. Unlike laccases, these BODs are stable in physiological conditions (20mM phosphate buffer, pH 7.4, 0.14 M NaCl, 37 °C) and more than 120 papers have been published in the last 7 years. Here, we will first briefly describe some general features of BODs and then review the use of BODs for bilirubin biosensors and the recent achievements and progress toward the elaboration of efficient O2 reducing cathodes.