Development and evaluation of an electrochemical biosensor for creatinine quantification in a drop of whole human blood

Abstract

An electrochemical biosensor for creatinine determination in a drop of whole human blood was developed and applied to the determination of creatinine in real clinical samples. It is based on the modification of a dual carbon working electrode with a combination of three enzymes: creatinine amidohydrolase (CNN), creatine amidinohydrolase (CRN) and sarcosine oxidase (SOX). Electrochemical transduction is performed using horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and potassium hexacyanoferrate(II) as mediator. A drop of human blood is enough to carry out the measurements by differential chronoamperometry where one carbon electrode detects creatine and the other both creatine and creatinine. The integrated differential signal obtained in the biosensor is linear with the concentration of creatinine in blood in the range 0.5–15 mg/dL and the enzyme-modified electrodes are stable for at least 3 months at 4 °C. The biosensor was lined to a reference method based on Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry (IDMS) with 50 real human blood samples and the results compared with those obtained by alternative routine techniques based on Jaffé method and an enzymatic method (Cobas 8000 Roche®, Crep2 Roche®). There were no significant differences between the creatinine concentrations found by the routine techniques and the developed biosensor.