Miniaturized biosensor for avian influenza virus detection

Avian Influenza Virus (AIV) infections are a major cause of mortality and rapid identification of the virus has important clinical, economical and epidemiological implications The traditional methods for avian influenza vir-us diagnostic are Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) which are time consuming and expensive. In this paper we describe the development of miniaturized gold electrode biosensor for H7N1 detection with electrochemical technique such us impedance spectroscopy. The biosensor is based on the immobilization of specific H7N1 antibodies onto biofunctionnalized gold electrode. Each grafted layer on the gold electrode was characterized with impedance spectroscopy and modelised with an equivalent electric circuit. The affinity interaction of the antibody with the specific antigen can be measured with a low limit detection (5 mu g/ml) and with a good reproductibility. The non-specific interaction has been tested with the Newcastle antigen. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.