Use of 3,3',5,5' tetramethylbenzidine as new electrochemical indicator of DNA hybridization and its application in...

Electrochemical tools are important biosensor platforms for disease diagnosis, due to their speediness, easiness, low cost and portability. However, for DNA detection, the use of indicators and/or intercalators is necessary to improve electrochemical sensitivity. Currently, ethidium bromide (EthBr) is the cheapest and most used DNA intercalators, but presents carcinogenic and teratogenic properties. Other indicators may be important for DNA photonic detection, and besides being more expensive, they behave similarly to EthBr. This investigation shows for the first time the use of tetramethylbenzidine(TMB) as a new remarkable non-carcinogenic DNA indicator for genosensing purposes, which may be used for nucleic acid detection of microorganisms, based on complementarity of base-pairing between probe and target molecules. The results indicate that TMB can be used as a new electrochemical indicator readily applicable in genosensors, which is able to detect the hybridization of single stranded DNA probe with its complementary target strand. An additional advantage of TMB, beside its non-genotoxicity, is the electrochemical reduction property, which prevents interference of serum components and other oxidative samples in the electrochemical analysis.