Development of disposable biosensor systems for early detection of childhood obesity

The incidence of obesity, which is defined as increased amount of fat in the body, differs according to gender, age and race. Childhood obesity has been increasing worldwide in recent years. Obesity causes serious complications such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, non alcoholic hepatosteatosis, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular diseases. For this reason, early diagnosis of this disease is extremely important. In this phD study, disposable biosensors have been developed for leptin, adiponectin and neuropeptide Y which are potential biomarkers for early detection of childhood obesity. All immobilization steps of biosensors, optimization studies and analytical characterization were followed and evaluated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and square wave voltammetry techniques. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to monitoring the surface morphology of the immobilization steps of the biosensors. The applicability of the designed biosensors to real serum samples was tested to investigate the potential of them in clinical use. It has been observed that biosensors sensitively allow the determination of analytes (leptin, adiponectin, neuropeptide Y) in real serum samples. At the same time, it has been found that the developed biosensor systems have advantages such as long shelf life, reproducibility, high sensitivity, potential to determine analyte concentrations at femtogram and picogram level.