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Advances in Polymeric Materials for Biosensors Applications

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A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 5269

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Francesco Damin‬

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Guest Editor

Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche "G. Natta" SCITEC- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, 20131 Milano, Italy
Interests: DNA microarray; molecular diagnostics; liquid biopsy; genotyping; protein microarray; surface modification; polymer coating; biosensors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of biosensors for determining the concentration of compounds with biological relevance that, among the different methods employed to immobilize biomolecules on the surface, make use of polymers has expanded rapidly in various fields of the life sciences. Among these biosensors, microarrays are of particular importance for their ability to perform multiplex analysis of biological systems at the cellular, protein, and genetic levels in a massively parallel way. Recent advances in array technology, bioinformatics, and statistics have reinforced the clinical utility of microarrays for diagnostic, prognostic, or therapeutic purposes in healthcare. The Special Issue will disseminate research on recent developments in biosensor technologies that have led to the development of miniaturized, fully integrated solid-phase analytical instruments capable of performing complete experiments, high-throughput screening, and multiplex diagnostic detection. We would like to invite researchers to submit their original research, short communications, and review articles covering the experimental aspects of biosensors from their manufacturing with advanced materials and polymers, methods, properties, to their applications. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

Synthesis and characterization of functional polymers and their application to biosensors;
Applications in disease diagnostics and personalized medicine;
Study of biological processes and biomolecules interactions;
Biomarker discovery;
Genotyping and detection of DNA mutations;
Pharmacogenetics.

Dr. Francesco Damin‬
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

polymer synthesis
polymer coatings
probe immobilization
surface modification
microarray
genotyping
DNA mutations
molecular diagnostics
personalized medicine
biosensors
biomolecular detection
biomarker detection
disease diagnosis

Published Papers (2 papers)

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17 pages, 2890 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Hydrogel Droplet Microarray for Genotyping Antimicrobial Resistance Determinants in Neisseria gonorrhoeae Isolates

by Boris Shaskolskiy, Ilya Kandinov, Dmitry Kravtsov, Alexandra Vinokurova, Sofya Gorshkova, Marina Filippova, Alexey Kubanov, Victoria Solomka, Dmitry Deryabin, Ekaterina Dementieva and Dmitry Gryadunov

Polymers 2021, 13(22), 3889; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/polym13223889 - 10 Nov 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1978

Abstract

A multiplex assay based on a low-density hydrogel microarray was developed to identify genomic substitutions in N. gonorrhoeae that determine resistance to the currently recommended treatment agents ceftriaxone and azithromycin and the previously used drugs penicillin, tetracycline, and ciprofloxacin. The microarray identifies 74 drug resistance determinants in the N. gonorrhoeae penA, ponA, porB, gyrA, parC, rpsJ, mtrR, bla_TEM, tetM, and 23S rRNA genes. The hydrogel elements were formed by automated dispensing of nanoliter-volume droplets followed by UV-induced copolymerization of NH₂-containing oligonucleotides with gel-forming monomers. Polybutylene terephthalate plates without special modifications were used as microarray substrates. Sequences and concentrations of immobilized oligonucleotides, gel composition, and hybridization conditions were carefully selected, and the median discrimination ratio ranged from 2.8 to 29.4, allowing unambiguous identification of single-nucleotide substitutions. The mutation identification results in a control sample of 180 N. gonorrhoeae isolates were completely consistent with the Sanger sequencing results. In total, 648 clinical N. gonorrhoeae isolates obtained in Russia during the last 5 years were analyzed and genotyped using these microarrays. The results allowed us to draw conclusions about the present situation with antimicrobial susceptibility of N. gonorrhoeae in Russia and demonstrated the possibility of using hydrogel microarrays to control the spread of antibiotic resistance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Polymeric Materials for Biosensors Applications)

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12 pages, 3058 KiB

Open AccessCommentary

The Effects of Three-Dimensional Ligand Immobilization on Kinetic Measurements in Biosensors

by Elisa Chiodi, Allison M. Marn, Monireh Bakhshpour, Nese Lortlar Ünlü and M. Selim Ünlü

Polymers 2022, 14(2), 241; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/polym14020241 - 07 Jan 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1809

Abstract

The field of biosensing is in constant evolution, propelled by the need for sensitive, reliable platforms that provide consistent results, especially in the drug development industry, where small molecule characterization is of uttermost relevance. Kinetic characterization of small biochemicals is particularly challenging, and has required sensor developers to find solutions to compensate for the lack of sensitivity of their instruments. In this regard, surface chemistry plays a crucial role. The ligands need to be efficiently immobilized on the sensor surface, and probe distribution, maintenance of their native structure and efficient diffusion of the analyte to the surface need to be optimized. In order to enhance the signal generated by low molecular weight targets, surface plasmon resonance sensors utilize a high density of probes on the surface by employing a thick dextran matrix, resulting in a three-dimensional, multilayer distribution of molecules. Despite increasing the binding signal, this method can generate artifacts, due to the diffusion dependence of surface binding, affecting the accuracy of measured affinity constants. On the other hand, when working with planar surface chemistries, an incredibly high sensitivity is required for low molecular weight analytes, and furthermore the standard method for immobilizing single layers of molecules based on self-assembled monolayers (SAM) of epoxysilane has been demonstrated to promote protein denaturation, thus being far from ideal. Here, we will give a concise overview of the impact of tridimensional immobilization of ligands on label-free biosensors, mostly focusing on the effect of diffusion on binding affinity constants measurements. We will comment on how multilayering of probes is certainly useful in terms of increasing the sensitivity of the sensor, but can cause steric hindrance, mass transport and other diffusion effects. On the other hand, probe monolayers on epoxysilane chemistries do not undergo diffusion effect but rather other artifacts can occur due to probe distortion. Finally, a combination of tridimensional polymeric chemistry and probe monolayer is presented and reviewed, showing advantages and disadvantages over the other two approaches. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Polymeric Materials for Biosensors Applications)

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