Tjerignimin Adissa Silue^1,, Valerie Lewitus², Abul Hussam³, Hadar Ben-Yoav⁴, Nathalia Peixoto¹

Dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter in the brain. The dysfunction of the dopaminergic system is the leading cause of numerous diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Hence, it is important to find selective and sensitive detection methods for the early diagnosis of diseases related to the abnormal levels of dopamine. In this study, we show a new electrochemical sensing platform based on carbon nanotube (SWCNT) and a sheet of graphene (GRA). The novelty of our sensor is the coating of the substrates with chitosan-catechol (CC) by electrodeposition, enhancing the dopamine response by 70%. The dose-response for each set of electrodes (bare CNT, bare GRA, and coated CNT as well as coated GRA) was measured. Finally, the electrodes were tested in cerebrospinal fluid (artificial and human), for the detection of millimolar to nanomolar levels of dopamine. The electrodes exhibited high sensitivity (2.03mA mol·L^-1, 1.45 mA mol·L^-1, 0.0298 mA mol·L^-1, and 0.0559 mA mol·L^-1 for the modified CNT, bare CNT, modified GRA and bare GRA, respectively, for the oxidation of DA. The oxidation peak current was proportional to the concentration of DA in the range from 50×10^-6 to 50x10^-9 M (n= 6, r² =0.98). The dopamine recovery in human CSF were, 49-78% and 65-65% with coated graphene and CNT electrodes, respectively. Our results indicate that the CC modified CNT electrodes achieved the best recovery, sensitivity, limit of detection, and selectivity compared to the uncoated CNT as well as the coated and uncoated graphene electrodes.

dopamine, uric acid, ascorbic acid, cyclic voltammetry, limit of detection, sensitivity, cerebrospinal fluid