Advances in Nanomaterials for Biosensing Application

Dear Colleagues,

At the global level, great advances have been achieved towards new approaches in biosensing and bioelectronic devices suitable for application in human health monitoring. Currently, the healthcare sector makes diagnoses based on biosensors, which are devices that measure biological signals and convert them into electrical signals. As in many different technological fields, nanomaterials have demonstrated their appropriateness for biosensing applications. The smart use of such nano-objects has led to clearly enhanced performances with increased sensitivities and lowered detection limits of several orders of magnitude. Specifically, nanomaterials used as transduction elements in biosensing devices include nanoparticles with high stability and high carrier capacity, nanowires and nanorods that are capable of high detection sensitivity, carbon nanotubes with a large surface area and high electrical and thermal conductivity, and quantum dots with color tunability.

This Special Issue will focus on the evolution of biosensors, on the types of biosensors based on their receptors, transducers, and modern approaches employed in biosensors using nanomaterials, and the recent advances in biosensing technology with the expansion of nanotechnology.

Dr. Elena Dilonardo
Dr. Maria Rachele Guascito
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Bioengineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• biosensors
• nanomaterials
• nanobiosensing
• biomolecules
• interface
• detection strategies

Title: Polydopamine-based molecular imprinting polymer electrochemical sensor for neopterin detection
Authors: Elena Dilonardo
Affiliation: Institute of Nanotechnology, CNR-NANOTEC, Via E. Orabona 4, 70126 Bari, Italy
Abstract: Neopterin is a low molecular weight biomarker of pro-inflammatory immune responses; it is an unconjugated pteridine, produced in live cells metabolism. The increase of neopterin concentrations is significant in the progression of a lot of diseases, such as virus infections (e.g. COVID-19), as well in transplant rejection, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer. In human serum, the neopterin concentration values are up to 10 nM in healthy individuals. The detection of neopterin is complicated since to its limited solubility and low concentration in biological fluids. In this work, a sensitive and selective electrochemical sensor for neopterin detection was prepared using polydopamine molecular imprinted polymers (PDA-MIPs)-modified glassy carbon electrode. PDA-MIPs films were produced by electro-polymerization directly on glassy carbon working electrode, varying the ratio between the polymer (DA) and template, neopterin molecule; instead, non-imprinted polymer (PDA-NIP) films were synthesized by exploiting the same procedure in the absence of the template, for comparison. The rebinding and removal of the template were detected by cyclic voltammetry (CV) using ferricyanide as a redox marker. All prepared MIPs revealed a response in presence of in neopterin solution with increasing concentration from 1.2 nM up to 1.2 mM. Specifically, the response revealed a fast increase at low neopterin concentration up to about 120 nM; at higher neopterin concentration the response variation was slower, reaching to a plateau. The highest response was reported for the MIP prepared with the highest content of neopterin, as expected, containing a higher quantity of cativities available to rebind the analyte.