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Graphene oxide-based biosensing platform for rapid and sensitive detection of HIV-1 protease

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Abstract

HIV-1 protease is essential for the life cycle of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and is one of the most important clinical targets for antiretroviral therapies. In this work, we developed a graphene oxide (GO)-based fluorescence biosensing platform for the rapid, sensitive, and accurate detection of HIV-1 protease, in which fluorescent-labeled HIV-1 protease substrate peptide molecules were covalently linked to GO. In the absence of HIV-1 protease, fluorescein was effectively quenched by GO. In contrast, in the presence of HIV-1 protease, it would cleave the substrate peptide into short fragments, thus producing fluorescence. Based on this sensing strategy, HIV-1 protease could be detected at as low as 1.18 ng/mL. More importantly, the sensor could successfully detect HIV-1 protease in human serum. Such GO-based fluorescent sensors may find useful applications in many fields, including diagnosis of protease-related diseases, as well as sensitive and high-throughput screening of drug candidates.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Institutes of Health (2R15GM110632-02) and National Science Foundation (1708596).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Illinois Institute of Technology, 3101 S Dearborn St, Chicago, IL, 60616, USA

    Youwen Zhang, Xiaohan Chen, Golbarg M. Roozbahani & Xiyun Guan

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  1. Youwen Zhang
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  2. Xiaohan Chen
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  3. Golbarg M. Roozbahani
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  4. Xiyun Guan
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Correspondence to Xiyun Guan.

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Zhang, Y., Chen, X., Roozbahani, G.M. et al. Graphene oxide-based biosensing platform for rapid and sensitive detection of HIV-1 protease. Anal Bioanal Chem 410, 6177–6185 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-018-1224-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-018-1224-2

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