Detection of phenylketonuria disease using a biosensor based on screen printed gold electrode and hematoxylin

Diagnosis of the Phenylketonuria (PKU) is very important for health system, especially for new born children. PKU is a deficiency of phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) enzyme, which after some mutation, the enzyme would be deficient. For the detection of mutation in the aforementioned enzyme gene, a DNA electrochemical biosensor have developed based on the screen printed gold electrode and also the hematoxylin as electrochemical label. In addition, the optimization experiments were performed to reach the best condition of the concentration and time span of hematoxylin. The reduction signals of the hematoxylin was assessed using the differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) technique. The results stated that the logarithmic plot of the target DNA concentration versus current, were linear in the wide range, from 0.1 nM to 250.0 pM of the target DNA, and the detection limit was as 0.038 nM. These results was superior to the most of previously published DNA electrochemical biosensors, and then the proposed biosensor could be used in future applications for the detection of phenylketonuria disease

Keywords:

Phenylketonuria , gene mutation , biosensor , electrochemical methods