Chapter 8 - Medical Applications of Biosensors

Abstract

The detection of analytes of medical relevance is yet another important area of biosensor applications. The ease of use of biosensors for the detection of analytes that are monitored especially for the onset of the different types of diseases as well as their management has led to the development of different types of biosensors. Some of these include sensitive immunoassay of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), novel microfluidic impedance assay for monitoring endothelin-induced cardiac hypertrophy, quartz-crystal microbalance-based immunosensor array for clinical immunophenotyping of acute leukemias, histone deacylase (HDAC) inhibitor assay based on resonance energy transfer, and biochip for a rapid and sensitive detection of multiple cancer markers simultaneously. This chapter analyzes examples of medical applications of biosensors and analyzes the kinetics of binding and dissociation of these examples using fractal analysis. Examples of biosensors discussed include the binding of TNF-α in solution to poly(guanine)-functionalized silica, the binding of different antigens in solution to the anti-CD antigen immobilized on a quartz-crystal microbalance (QCM) surface, the binding of 50 ng/mL myoglobin in serum to antimyoglobin antibody immobilized on a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor surface, the binding and dissociation of cardiomyocytes plus endothelin-1 (ET-1) with and without a DEP (dielectrophoresis) device, and the binding and dissociation of different concentrations of oxazaborolidine derivatives, BNO1, BNO2, BNO3, and BNO4 + 2 mM sucrose in solution to the enzyme FTF immobilized on a SPR biosensor chip surface.