An electrochemical biosensor based on double molecular recognition for selective monitoring of cerebral dopamine dynamics at 4 min interval

Abstract

Dopamine (DA) monitoring with high selectivity and sensitivity in the cerebrally extracellular fluid is of high value for evaluating the role of DA in the physiological and pathological processes. Especially because neurotransmission involved in rapid events, lowering the detection interval in order to gain more insight into DA dynamics inserts great challenge into the DA analytical method. In this work, a facile electrochemical biosensor for sensing DA with high sensitivity was developed here. Double molecular recognition based on boronic acid-diol and N-hydroxysuccinimide ester-amine endows the new biosensor favourable selectivity for cerebral DA detection. More importantly, microdialysate volume as low as 7 μL was requisite for the DA analysis without suffering from a sensitivity loss, thus monitoring DA concentration in brain microdialysate at 4 min interval was successfully achieved. Subsequently, the present biosensor was successfully employed for monitoring of cerebral DA transients evoked by high K+ and nomifensine.