An amperometric biosensor of L-fucose in urine for the first screening test of cancer

Quantitative routine detection of fucose, which is a cancer marker, in urine is effective for the preliminary screening of cancer. Amperometric biosensing methods have the advantage of being simple, rapid, and precise for urinalysis. However, coexisting electroactive interferences such as ascorbic acid (AA), dopamine (DA), and uric acid (UA) prevent accurate measurements. In this work, an amperometric L-fucose biosensor unaffected by interferences was developed and utilizes direct electron transfer type bioelectrocatalysis of pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ)-dependent pyranose dehydrogenase from Coprinopsis cinerea (CcPDH). The isolated PQQ domain from CcPDH was immobilized on gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-modified electrodes, which obtained a catalytic current at a lower potential than the oxidation potential of the interfering compounds. Applying an operating potential of −0.1 V vs. Ag|AgCl (3 M NaCl) enabled the detection of L-fucose while completely eliminating the oxidation of AA, DA, and UA on the electrodes. The increase in the specific area of the electrodes by increasing the AuNP drop-casting time resulted in an improvement in the sensor performance. The biosensor exhibited a linear range for L-fucose detection between 0.1 mM and 1 mM (R² = 0.9996), including a cut-off value, the sensitivity was 3.12 ± 0.05 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻², and the detection limit was 13.6 μM at a signal-to-noise ratio of three. The biosensor can be used to quantify the concentration of L-fucose at physiological levels and does not require urine preprocessing, making it applicable to practical use for point-of-care testing with urine.