Fullerene-based mimics of enhanced acetylcholine detection for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

The design of sensitive and cost-effective enzyme-free sensor systems for the effective electrooxidation of acetylcholine (ACh) plays a key role in following up on Alzheimer's disease. We report a fullerenzyme-based catalyst (F-HS) for the electrochemical detection of ACh that mimics enzymatic active sites using multifunc-tional self-assembled nanostructures. As a proof-of-concept, histidine and serine amino acid-based functionali-zation of fullerenzymes was used, along with embedded nickel ions (F-HS-Ni), which tend to coordinate with the nitrogen of the imidazole ring of the histidine moiety. Further, the electrode modifier properties of the resulting material were examined for sensor applications. Enhanced cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometric mea-surements affirmed that the F-HS-Ni material displayed the most prominent activity for the electrocatalytic oxidation of ACh, allowing an amperometric response in a linear range of ACh concentrations of 20-6000 & mu;M with a low detection limit of 8.01 & mu;M. Furthermore, the platform allows for the detection of ACh with a good rate of recovery in human serum samples, offering a good potential method for the quick detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer's.