Overview on peptide-based electrochemical biosensors

Abstract

Peptides have attracted great interest in the construction of electrochemical biosensors in the fields of biomedicine, disease diagnosis, and environmental monitoring. They exhibit the advantages of high affinity and specificity, chemical diversity of building block amino acids, and standard synthesis scheme. Versatile peptide-based electrochemical biosensors have been developed for the detection of various targets, including metal ions, enzymes, proteins, exosomes, cells, and bacteria. Peptides and their self-assembled nanostructures can be used as recognition elements, enzyme substrates, electrode materials, and signal labels. Different functional species, including electroactive small molecules, enzymes, and nanomaterials have been coupled with peptides for direct conversion of binding/modification events into measurable signals. Herein, we systematically summarize the progress in peptide-based electrochemical biosensors according to the difference in peptide function and target type. The peptide-functionalized molecules and nanomaterials and the signal amplification strategies for improving the sensitivity of biosensors were discussed.