Oxytocin is a peptide hormone with high affinity to both Zn and Cu ions compared to other metal ions. This affinity makes oxytocin an attractive recognition layer for monitoring the levels of these essential ions in biofluids. Native oxytocin cannot differentiate between Cu and Zn ions and hence it is not useful for sensing Zn in the presence of Cu. We elucidated the effect of the terminal amine group of oxytocin on the affinity toward Cu using theoretical calculations. We designed a new Zn selective oxytocin-based biosensor that utilizes the terminal amine for surface anchoring, also preventing the response to Cu. The biosensor shows exceptional selectivity and very high sensitivity to Zn in impedimetric biosensing. This study shows for the first time an oxytocin derived sensor that can be used directly for sensing Zn in the presence of Cu.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9tb01932d | DOI Listing |
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