A disposable amperometric immunosensor for alpha-1-fetoprotein based on enzyme-labeled antibody/chitosan-membrane-modified screen-printed carbon electrode

A screen-printed three-electrode system is fabricated to prepare a novel disposable screen-printed immunosensor for rapid determination of alpha-1-fetoprotein (AFP) in human serum. The immunosensor is prepared by entrapping horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-labeled AFP antibody in chitosan membrane to modify the screen-printed carbon electrode. The membrane is characterized with scanning electron microscope and electrochemical methods. After the immunosensor is incubated with AFP at 30 degrees C for 35 min, the access of the active center of HRP catalyzing the oxidation reaction of thionine by H(2)O(2) is partly inhibited. In presence of 1.2 mM thionine and 6 mM H(2)O(2), the electrocatalytic current decreases linearly in two concentration ranges of AFP from 0 to 20 and from 20 to 150 ng/mL with a detection limit of 0.74 ng/mL. The immunosensor shows an acceptable accuracy compared with those obtained from immunoradiometric assays. The interassay coefficients of variation are 6.6 and 4.2% at 10 and 100 ng/mL, respectively. The storage stability is acceptable in pH 7.0 phosphate buffer solution at 4 degrees C for more than 10 days. The proposed method can detect the AFP through one-step immunoassay and would be valuable for clinical immunoassay.