Interdigitated Conductometric Immunosensor for Determination of Interleukin-6 in Humans Based on Dendrimer G4 and Colloidal Gold Modified Composite Film

A highly sensitive, fast and stable conductometric immunosensor for determination of interleukin‐6 (IL6) in humans is developed by encapsulation of horseradish peroxidase‐labeled interleukin‐6 antibody (HRP‐anti‐IL6) in poly(amidoamine) fourth‐generation dendrimer (dendrimer) and colloidal gold (nanogold) modified composite architecture. The presences of nanogold and dendrimer provided a congenial microenvironment for the immobilized biomolecules and decreased the electron transfer impedance, leading to a direct electrochemical behavior of the immobilized HRP. The formation of the antibody‐antigen complex by a simple one‐step immunoreaction between the immobilized HRP‐anti‐IL6 and IL6 in sample solution introduced a barrier of direct electrical communication between the immobilized HRP and the gold electrode surface, thus local conductivity variations could be detected by the HRP electrocatalytic reaction in 0.02 M phosphate buffer solution (pH 7.0) containing 50 μM H2O2, 0.01 M KI and 0.15 M NaC1. Under optimal conditions, the proposed immunosensor exhibited a good conductometric response to IL6 in a linear range from 30 to 300 pg/mL with a relatively low detection limit of 10 pg/mL at 3δ. The precision and reproducibility are acceptable with the intra‐assay CV of 7.3% and 5.6% at 100 and 200 pg/mL IL6, respectively. The storage stability of the proposed immunosensor is acceptable in a pH 7.0 PBS at 4 °C for 8 days. Importantly, the proposed methodology could be extended to the detection of other antigens or biocompounds.