Exploiting the Electrostatic Binding of Ruthenium Hexamine Molecular Redox Nanowires onto DNA/OGCN Biohybrid Electrodes toward the Electrochemical Detection of COVID-19.

Abstract

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) recently emerged as a life-threatening global pandemic that has ravaged millions of lives. The affected patients are known to frequently register numerous comorbidities induced by COVID-19 such as diabetes, asthma, cardiac arrest, hypertension, and neurodegenerative diseases, to name a few. The expensiveness and probability of false negative results of conventional screening tests often delay timely diagnosis and treatment. In such cases, the deployment of a suitable biosensing platform can readily expedite the rapid diagnosis process for enhanced patient outcomes. We report the development of an electrochemical genosensor based on DNA/OGCN (DNA/oxygenated graphitic carbon nitride) nanohybrids for the quantification of severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) DNA─the key biomarker for COVID-19. This is achieved by exploiting the molecular nanowire-formation capability of the [Ru(NH₃)₆]^2+/3+ redox probe onto the DNA phosphate backbone via electrostatic interactions. The microstructural characterization of OGCN was performed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with an energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) module, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The electrochemical analyses were performed using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), while the analytical performance of the sensor was evaluated using square wave voltammetry (SWV). The developed sensor exhibited a wide linear detection range within 10 fM-10 μM, with a limit of detection (LoD) of ∼7.23 fM with a high degree of selectivity toward SARS-CoV-2 target DNA, thereby indicating its potential to be employed in a point-of-care scenario toward providing affordable healthcare to the global populace.