A Chemically Synthesized Capture Agent Enables the Selective, Sensitive, and Robust Electrochemical Detection of Anthrax Protective Antigen

Abstract

We report on a robust and sensitive approach for detecting protective antigen (PA) exotoxin from Bacillus anthracis in complex media. A peptide-based capture agent against PA was developed by improving a bacteria display-developed peptide into a highly selective biligand through in situ click screening against a large, chemically synthesized peptide library. This biligand was coupled with an electrochemical enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay utilizing nanostructured gold electrodes. The resultant assay yielded a limit of detection of PA of 170 pg/mL (2.1 pM) in buffer, with minimal sensitivity reduction in 1% serum. The powdered capture agent could be stably stored for several days at 65 deg C, and the full electrochemical biosensor showed no loss of performance after extended storage at 40 deg C. The engineered stability and specificity of this assay should be extendable to other cases in which biomolecular detection in demanding environments is required.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 24, 2013
Accession Number
ADA616604

Entities

People

  • Amethist S. Finch
  • Bert Lai
  • Blake Farrow
  • Dimitra N Stratis-Cullum
  • Errika C. Romero
  • Heather D Agnew
  • James R. Heath
  • Kaycie M. Deyle
  • Matthew B. Coppock
  • Sung A. Hong
  • Sung Yang

Organizations

  • University of California, Santa Barbara

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biomedical And Dental Materials
  • Biotechnology
  • Blood
  • Blood Proteins
  • Buffers (Chemistry)
  • Carbon Nanotubes
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Detection
  • Materials
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Military Research
  • Storage
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Biology

Readers

  • Electrochemical Surface Science
  • Microbial Pathology
  • Nanoscale Plasmonic Nanotechnology

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Microelectronics