One-step synthesized flower-like materials used for sensitively detecting amyloid precursor protein

In this paper, we developed a new method to detect Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related amyloid precursor protein (APP). A composite material containing horseradish peroxidase (HRP), APP antibody, and Cu₃(PO₄)₂ was synthesized as the biosensor by co-precipitation method. In this competitive immunoassay, APP was first conjugated onto the microplate surface with the help of poly-L-lysine as the coating reagent; the composite materials were then attached onto the microplate through the interaction of APP and antibody; the HRP can catalyze the oxidation of 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) and formed colored species. Therefore, the more APP in the detection solution (free form), the less composite material was combined with the immobilized APP on the microplate, resulting in the production of less colored TMB species. A series of detection parameters were studied, such as the composite material synthesis process, the concentration, and reaction time of different compounds. Our method has higher sensitivity compared with the similar immunoassay without using composite materials (the limits of detection are 0.3 and 3 ng/mL, respectively), and can be used for real samples (human serum) detection. The detection results using our method are consistent with the ELISA results, which is useful for the AD detection. Graphical abstract ᅟ.