Nanomaterial Modified Screen Printed Electrode Based Electrochemical Genosensor for Efficient Detection of Neonatal Sepsis

The present work reports fabrication of nanomaterial based electrochemical genosensor for efficient detection of neonatal sepsis. For this purpose, virulent cfb gene of its major causative organisms, i.e. Group B Streptococcus (GBS) was selected. Further, a cfb specific 19-mer long amine terminated DNA probe was designed to be used as bioreceptor. The genosensing platform is fabricated by utilizing graphene oxide as nanomaterial which is deposited onto screen printed electrode (SPE) by electrophoretic deposition technique. Thereafter, the designed probe DNA is immobilized on graphene oxide modified SPE through EDC-NHS chemistry. Characterization of nanomaterial and fabricated genosensing platform is studied via X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transmission infrared spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry techniques. The fabricated genosensor (BSA/pDNA/GO/SPE) is able to efficiently detect target cfb gene with a linear detection range of 10(-12)-10(-7) M, lower detection limit of 10(-12) M and sensitivity of 725.9 mu A M-1 cm(-2). The biosensing ability of developed genosenor is also investigated in artificial serum sample and the obtained results are found within acceptable percentage relative standard deviation (%RSD), indicating its application in detecting neonatal sepsis in serum samples.