TITLE:
Nanocellulose-Based Biosensors: Design, Preparation, and Activity of Peptide-Linked Cotton Cellulose Nanocrystals Having Fluorimetric and Colorimetric Elastase Detection Sensitivity
AUTHORS:
J. Vincent Edwards, Nicolette Prevost, Alfred French, Monica Concha, Anthony DeLucca, Qinglin Wu
KEYWORDS:
Cellulose Nanocrystal; Cotton; Human Neutrophil Elastase; Fluorescent; Colorimetric; Point of Care Biosensor; Peptide-Cellulose Conjugate
JOURNAL NAME:
Engineering,
Vol.5 No.9A,
September
10,
2013
ABSTRACT: Nanocrystalline cellulose is an amphiphilic, high
surface area material that can be easily functionalized and is biocompatible
and eco-friendly. It has been used singularly and in combination with other
nanomaterials to optimize biosensor design. The attachment of peptides and
proteins to nanocrystalline cellulose and their proven retention of activity
provide a route to bioactive conjugates useful in designs for point of care
biosensors. Elastase is a biomarker for a number of inflammatory diseases
including chronic wounds, and its rapid sensitive detection with a facile
approach to sensing is of interest. An increased interest in the use of
elastase sensors for point of care diagnosis is resulting in a variety of approaches
to elsastase sensors utilizing different detection technologies. Here elastase
substrate peptide-celluose conjugates synthesized as colorimetric and
fluorescent sensors on cotton cellulose nanocrystals are compared. The
structure of the sensor peptide-nanocellulose crystals when modeled with
computational crystal structure parameters demonstrates the
spatio-stoichiometric features of the nanocrystalline surface that allows
ligand to active site protease interacttion. An understanding of
the structure/function relations of enzyme and conjugate substrate of the
peptides covalently attached to nancellulose has implications for enhancing the
biomolecular transducer. The potential applications of both fluorescent
and colorimetric detection to markers like elastase using peptide cotton
cellulose nanocrystals as a transducer surface to model point of care
biosensors for protease detection are discussed.