Development of electrochemical based biosensor platforms to be used in the determination of viral structures

Infectious diseases caused by viruses (such as influenza, Zika, human immunodeficiency, Ebola, dengue, hepatitis and Covid-19 virus) are diseases that have been on the agenda of the whole world for the last quarter of the century and have become one of the most important problems of people. Urgent identification of the people infected with the disease will allow these people who have contracted the disease to be treated effectively. In this context, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based methods have been the most common and widely used method that responds with sensitivity. However, due to some disadvantages encountered in PCR applications (in particular; the test protocol is comprehensive, not fast in terms of time, not economical, requires user expertise, is not suitable for field/on-site measurements, etc.), the new generation (which can give fast results, economical, sensitive, suitable for on-site application, etc.) systems that can provide solutions are needed. On the subject of different test-diagnostic applications used in a large number of test-based analysis methods and techniques, electroanalytical systems have some advantages. Within the scope of this presentation, a low-cost, miniaturized electrochemical platforms for surface-printed electrodes by using appropriate biochemical and viral structures of the electrode surfaces decorated with suitable agents. These platforms can be used as the determination of some particular viral proteins for the understanding of viral pathogenic diseases. In this study; cupper modified graphite electrode was developed and characterized with SEM. Afterwards an antibody of N protein of Covid-19 was decorated surrounding this electrode to measure the amount of that protein in the samples. When the Cyclic voltammetry (CV) signals were examined, it was determined that the electrode coated with N protein antibody was 1.156 mA, and the electrode coated with N protein antigen was 0.712 mA. It has been shown that there is an obvious effect on the electrochemical activity of modified electrodes in the detection of N protein. In these measurements first a calibration curve was performed for the unknown samples then the amount of N protein was determined as virus positive or not.