An overview of label-free electrochemical protein sensors

Electrochemical-based protein sensors offer sensitivity, selectivity and reliability at a low cost, making them very attractive tools for protein detection. Although the sensors use a broad range of different chemistries, they all depend on the solid electrode surface, interactions with the target protein and the molecular recognition layer. Traditionally, redox enzymes have provided the molecular recognition elements from which target proteins have interacted with. This necessitates that the redox-active enzymes couple with electrode surfaces and usually requires the participation of added diffusional components, or assembly of the enzymes in functional chemical matrices. These complications, among many others, have seen a trend towards non-enzymatic-based electrochemical protein sensors. Several electrochemical detection approaches have been exploited. Basically, these have fallen into two categories: labeled and label-free detection systems. The former rely on a redox-active signal from a reporter molecule or a label, which changes upon the interaction of the target protein. In this review, we discuss the label-free electrochemical detection of proteins, paying particular emphasis to those that exploit intrinsic redox-active amino acids.