Label-Free and Homogeneous Electrochemical Biosensor for Flap Endonuclease 1 Based on the Target-Triggered Difference in Electrostatic Interaction between Molecular Indicators and Electrode Surface

Abstract

Target-induced differences in the electrostatic interactions between methylene blue (MB) and indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode surface was firstly employed to develop a homogeneous electrochemical biosensor for flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1) detection. In the absence of FEN1, the positively charged methylene blue (MB) is free in the solution and can diffuse onto the negatively charged ITO electrode surface easily, resulting in an obvious electrochemical signal. Conversely, with the presence of FEN1, a 5′-flap is cleaved from the well-designed flapped dumbbell DNA probe (FDP). The remained DNA fragment forms a closed dumbbell DNA probe to trigger hyperbranched rolling circle amplification (HRCA) reaction, generating plentiful dsDNA sequences. A large amount of MB could be inserted into the produced dsDNA sequences to form MB-dsDNA complexes, which contain a large number of negative charges. Due to the strong electrostatic repulsion between MB-dsDNA complexes and the ITO electrode surface, a significant signal drop occurs. The signal change (ΔCurrent) shows a linear relationship with the logarithm of FEN1 concentration from 0.04 to 80.0 U/L with a low detection limit of 0.003 U/L (S/N = 3). This study provides a label-free and homogeneous electrochemical platform for evaluating FEN1 activity.