A nanoplatform-based aptasensor to electrochemically detect epinephrine produced by living cells

A novel aptasensor has been designed for quantitative monitoring of epinephrine (EP) based on cerium metal-organic framework (CeMOF) loaded gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The aptamer, specific to EP, is immobilized on a flexible screen-printed electrode modified with AuNPs@CeMOF, enabling highly selective binding to the target biomolecule. Under optimized operational conditions, the peak currents using voltammetric detection measured at voltage of 83 mV (vs. Ag/AgCl) for epinephrine exhibit a linear increase within concentration in the range 1 pM-10 nM. Following this detection strategy, a boasted limit of detection of 0.3 pM was achieved, surpassing the sensitivity of most reported methods. The developed biosensor showcased exceptional performance in detection of EP in spiked serum sample, with remarkable recovery range of 95.8-113% and precision reflected by low relative standard deviation (RSD) ranging from 2.23 to 6.19%. These results indicate the potential utility of this biosensor as a valuable clinical diagnostic tool. Furthermore, in vitro experiments were carried out using the presented biosensor to monitor the release of epinephrine from PC12 cells upon extracellular stimulation with K+ ions.