Multiwalled carbon nanotube nanofiller-polyindole polymer matrix-based efficient biosensor for the rapid detection of swine flu

Abstract

The synergistic properties of polyindole (PIN) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MTs) are used for the fabrication of an efficient biosensing platform towards the detection of swine flu using the serum amyloid A (SAA) biomarker. A chemical process is used for the synthesis of the PIN/MTs nanohybrid material and it is deposited using the electrophoretic deposition technique (DC potential of 80 V for 120 s) onto indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass substrates. Subsequently, the platform is incubated with monoclonal anti-SAA antibodies and bovine serum albumin (BSA) protein. The structural and morphological studies of synthesized nanohybrid material and fabricated platforms are characterized using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and transmission eletcron microscopy. Additionally, the cyclic voltammetry technique has been used for electrochemical characterization and response studies. The fabricated immunoelectrode is capable of detecting SAA protein in a linear detection range of 10 μg mL⁻¹ to 100 μg mL⁻¹, which covers the whole physiological secretion range of the SAA protein in swine flu-infected patients. We obtained a remarkable sensitivity of 1.26 μA mL μg⁻¹ with a quick analysis time of 10 min. In addition to that, we have also investigated the electrochemical response of the developed biosensor using spiked artificial serum samples and the obtained results show good correlation with the standard SAA protein sample.