Targeting glucose oxidase at aspartate and glutamate residues with organic two-electron redox mediators

The bimolecular rate constants for the reactions of five organic two-electron redox mediators with reduced glucose oxidase (GOx) were determined by measuring voltammetric electrocatalytic currents at glassy carbon electrodes in the presence of excess glucose under anaerobic conditions. The mediators studied were thionine, brilliant cresyl blue, azure A, daunomycin, and dopamine, and the bimolecular rate constants for electron transfer between GOx and the oxidized mediator (M-1 s-1) are 1.6 x 10(4), 4.0 x 10(2), 9.8 x 10(2), 9.0 x 10(3), and 1.2 x 10(6), respectively. GOx was covalently derivatized using 1-ethyl-3-[3-(dimethylamino)propyl]carbodiimide and N-hydroxysulfosuccinimide to form amide bonds between the aliphatic primary amine groups on daunomycin and dopamine and carboxylate side chains of aspartate and glutamate residues. Derivatives with 2.5 +/- 0.1 daunomycin groups and 4 +/- 1 dopamine groups were obtained, with activities of 50% and 75%, respectively, relative to native GOx in a dye-peroxidase assay. Although the daunomycin derivative did not show measurable intramolecular electron-transfer rates, the dopamine derivative rapidly transfers electrons from active-site FADH2 groups to the oxidized (quinone) form of dopamine. Because the heterogeneous oxidation of dopamine is relatively slow, the currents measured at +0.75 V vs Ag/AgCl were not at their limiting (plateau) values, and only a minimum value of the intramolecular rate constant (4.5 s-1) could be determined. This value is > 20 times larger than values obtained for GOx-ferrocene derivatives in which surface lysine residues were covalently modified using identical coupling reagents and similar reaction conditions. This work shows that targeting GOx carboxylate groups with electron-transfer mediators may represent a promising approach to the design of reagentless glucose biosensors.