A reagent less fluorescent sol-gel biosensor for uric acid detection in biological fluids

The simultaneous encapsulation of a coupled uricase-peroxidase system and amplex red in a sol-gel matrix allows one to obtain a reagent-less and ready-to-use fluorescent biosensor for the accurate detection of uric acid in highly diluted biological fluids. The detection limit of the prepared biosensor was found to be 20 nM and was linear up to 1 muM. The high sensitivity found for the biosensor permitted a reliable determination of uric acid concentrations in the presence of interfering species (e.g., ascorbic acid) just by sample dilution (up to 50,000 for urine and 10,000 for serum and blood). The sol-gel encapsulation preserved the hierarchy of the enzyme activity as demonstrated by the performance of the fluorescent biosensor. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.