Electrochemical sensing of human neutrophil elastase and polymorphonuclear neutrophil activity

Human neutrophil elastase (HNE) is a serine protease, produced by polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs), whose uncontrolled production has been associated with various inflammatory disease states as well as tumour proliferation and metastasis. Here we report the development and characterisation of an electrochemical peptide-based biosensor, which enables the detection of clinically relevant levels of HNE. The sensing platform was characterised in terms of its analytical performance, enzymatic cleavage kinetics and cross-reactivity and applied to the quantitative detection of protease activity from PMNs from human blood. •We report the development of an electrochemical biosensor for human neutrophil elastase activity.•The sensing phase consisted in the immobilisation of a redox-labelled peptide onto a gold electrode via SAM.•The analytical characteristics were evaluated including limit of detection, reproducibility and selectivity.•The platform was applied for the detection of polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) activity from human blood samples.