The Development and Optimization of Biogenic Molecular Imprinted Electrodes for Peptide Detection in Complex Matrices
O'Connor, Abigail
O'Connor, Abigail
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Abstract
Cyanobacteria are phototrophic organisms found in warm eutrophic bodies of water. They produce microcystins, a peptide toxin that causes damage to the liver when ingested. Microcystins can bioaccumulate in fish, livestock, and crops posing serious health hazards and has led to significant environmental and economic losses worldwide. The detection of cyanobacteria in water has been studied but is not standardized in complex biological matrices. To fill the technological gap, we are combining carbon fiber microelectrodes (CFM) with fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) and novel molecular imprinting methods to measure microcystins in livestock, shellfish, and other agricultural matrices. FSCV with CFMs have been used in the real-time detection of the peptide Met-enkephalin (Met-enk) in tissue. FSCV has high spatiotemporal resolution, is sensitive, cost-effective, and biocompatible, but has low selectivity due to the adsorptive nature of CFMs. To enhance selectivity, biogenic molecularly imprinted polymer (bio-MIP) layer was incorporated on the CFM to act as an artificial receptor. Due to the toxic nature of microcystins, Met-Enk is used as a model peptide to demonstrate bio-MIPs performance. In bio-MIP technology the analyte of interest (Met-enk) is electropolymerized with an amino acid, Methionine on the surface of an electrode. The goal of this work is to make a sensitive and selective sensor for Met-enk. We used Angiotensin (II) 3-8 as an interfering peptide due to its similarities to Met-Enk. We tested two deposition techniques, slow scan cyclic voltammetry (CV) and potentiostatic electropolymerization (PE) to assess the best technique based on sensitivity and selectivity. We optimized the scan rate and potentials for the CV methods and potential and application time for PE. Our results show CV yielded more selective polymers for Met-Enk, but the PE yielded the highest sensitivity. Our goal is to continue to optimize bio-MIPs to detect peptides in complex matrices.
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Date
1/1/2026
Student Status
Graduate Student
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Poster
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Program/Major
Chemistry
College/School
College of Arts and Sciences
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Physical Science