Abstract
Recently ZnO has attracted much interest because of its usefulness for intracellular measurements of biochemical species by using its semiconducting, electrochemical, catalytic properties and for being biosafe and biocompatible. ZnO thus has a wide range of applications in optoelectronics, intracellular nanosensors, transducers, energy conversion and medical sciences. This review relates specifically to intracellular electrochemical (glucose and free metal ion) biosensors based on functionalized zinc oxide nanowires/nanorods. For intracellular measurements, the ZnO nanowires/nanorods were grown on the tip of a borosilicate glass capillary (0.7 µm in diameter) and functionalized with membranes or enzymes to produce intracellular selective metal ion or glucose sensors. Successful intracellular measurements were carried out using ZnO nanowires/nanorods grown on small tips for glucose and free metal ions using two types of cells, human fat cells and frog oocytes. The sensors in this study were used to detect real-time changes of metal ions and glucose across human fat cells and frog cells using changes in the electrochemical potential at the interface of the intracellular micro-environment. Such devices are helpful in explaining various intracellular processes involving ions and glucose.
Highlights
Nanotechnology and nanoscience offer new ways of manufacturing intracellular medical devices based on bioactive nanoscale structures
The determination of the intracellular glucose concentration with functionalized Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod-coated microelectrodes was performed in two types of cells, human adipocytes and frog oocytes [3,7]
Hexagonal Zn Onanowires/nanorods successfully were grown on the tip of a borosilicate glass capillary to make possible microinjection of specific reagents, which can interrupt or activate signal transmission from analytes, into the relatively large cells of adipocytes and oocytes
Summary
Nanotechnology and nanoscience offer new ways of manufacturing intracellular medical devices based on bioactive nanoscale structures. This can bring fundamental changes to the measurements and understanding of biological processes in health and disease, as well as enable novel diagnostics and interventions for treating diseases like diabetes [1,2]. The diameter of nanowires/nanorods is about the same size as for a protein (
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