Competitive electrochemical immunosensor for trace phosphorylated Tau181 analysis in plasma: Toward point-of-care technologies of Alzheimer's disease

Accurate detection of core Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers in biofluids is crucial for identifying preclinical AD and predicting disease progression. Phosphorylated tau 181 (p-tau181), a key biomarker, holds promise for early diagnosis. This work presents a sensitive and rapid electrochemical immunosensor (EC-iSensor) based on screen-printed electrodes (SPEs) for p-tau181 quantification. Employing a competitive immunoassay format, the EC-iSensor utilizes biotinylated p-tau181 as a competitor against the target analyte for binding to immobilized capture antibodies. Signal transduction is achieved via horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) substrate. The EC-iSensor exhibits a low detection limit of 1.91 fg/mL and a wide dynamic range spanning 6.97 fg/mL to 100 ng/mL in PBS. Furthermore, successful detection of p-tau181 in blood samples from AD patients demonstrated its practical applicability. This cost-effective SPE-based EC-iSensor offers a simple and highly sensitive platform for p-tau181 detection, presenting potential for point-of-care technologies (POCT) of AD.