Phosphorylation of Oligopeptides: Design of Ultra-Hydrophilic Zwitterionic Peptides for Anti-Fouling Detection of Nucleic Acids in Saliva.

The construction of low-fouling biosensors for assaying biomarkers in complex biological samples remains a challenge, and the key limitation is the lack of effective anti-fouling materials. Inspired by the biomimetic process of protein phosphorylation, we herein designed a new phosphorylated peptide modified with the dihydrogen phosphate (-POH) group, which significantly increased the hydrophilicity and anti-fouling capability of the peptide when compared with natural and normal peptides. Molecular simulation (MS) illustrated that, compared with the -COOH and -NH groups, the -POH group formed the most numbers of hydrogen bonds and stronger hydrogen bonds with water molecules. As a result, the POH-oligopeptide was proved by MS to be able to attract the greatest number of water molecules, so as to form a compact layer of HO to resist further adsorption of nonspecific biomolecules. The modification of electrodes with the designed POH-oligopeptides, in addition to the adoption of neutral peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) as the sensing probes, ensured the fabrication of anti-fouling electrochemical biosensors capable of detecting nucleic acids in complex saliva. The constructed anti-fouling biosensor was able to detect the nucleic acid of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in undiluted saliva, with a wide linear response range (0.01 pM-0.01 μM) and a low limit of detection (LOD) of 3.4 fM (S/N = 3). The phosphorylation of oligopeptides offers an effective strategy to designing ultra-hydrophilic peptides suitable for the construction of promising anti-biofouling biosensors and bioelectronics.