This article describes the preparation of a graphene electrode modified with a new conjugate of peptide nanotubes and folic acid for the selective detection of human cervical cancer cells over-expressing folate receptors. The functionalization of peptide nanotubes with folic acid was confirmed by fluorescence microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The peptide nanotube–folic acid modified graphene electrode was characterized by scanning electron microscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The modification of the graphene electrode with peptide nanotube–folic acid led to an increase in the current signal. The human cervical cancer cells were bound to the modified electrode through the folic acid–folate receptor interaction. Cyclic voltammograms in the presence of [Fe(CN)₆]^3−/4− as a redox species demonstrated that the binding of the folate receptor from human cervical cancer cells to the peptide nanotube–folic acid modified electrode lowered the electron transfer resulting in a decrease in the measured current. A detection limit of 250 human cervical cancer cells per mL was obtained. Control experiments confirmed that the peptide nanotube–folic acid electrode specifically recognized folate receptors. The modified electrode described here opens up new possibilities for future applications in early stage diagnoses of diseases where cells over-express folate receptors, such as in cancer or leishmaniasis disease.

Different techniques available to manipulate biological samples in a controlled manner are reviewed. The advantages and drawbacks are discussed together with ex

A surface modification of interdigitated gold microelectrodes (IDEs) with a doped polypyrrole (PPy) film for detection of dopamine released from populations of differentiated PC12 cells is presented. A thin PPy layer was potentiostatically electropolymerized from an aqueous pyrrole solution onto electrode surfaces. The conducting polymer film was doped during electropolymerization by introducing counter-ions in the monomer solution. Several counter-ions were tested and the resulting electrode modifications were characterized electrochemically to find the optimal dopant that increases sensitivity in dopamine detection. Overoxidation of the PPy films was shown to contribute to a significant enhancement in sensitivity to dopamine. The changes caused by overoxidation in the electrochemical behavior and electrode morphology were investigated using cyclic voltammetry and SEM as well as AFM, respectively. The optimal dopant for dopamine detection was found to be polystyrene sulfonate anion (PSS⁻). Rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells, a suitable model to study exocytotic dopamine release, were differentiated on IDEs functionalized with an overoxidized PSS⁻-doped PPy film. The modified electrodes were used to amperometrically detect dopamine released by populations of cells upon triggering cellular exocytosis with an elevated K⁺ concentration. A comparison between the generated current on bare gold electrodes and gold electrodes modified with overoxidized doped PPy illustrates the clear advantage of the modification, yielding 2.6-fold signal amplification. The results also illustrate how to use cell population based dopamine exocytosis measurements to obtain biologically significant information that can be relevant in, for instance, the study of neural stem cell differentiation into dopaminergic neurons.