Abstract:

Human apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) is an important risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, little progress has been made for the detection of APOE4, and most of existing detection methods suffer from time-consuming process and expensive instruments. This study firstly proposed a simple and sensitive electrochemical method for detection of APOE4 based on carboxyl-rich CeZnO nanoparticles. Under the optimal conditions, the fabricated immunosensor exhibited a good linear relationship ranging from 10 to 100 ng/mL with the detection limit of 1.8 ng/mL (S/N = 3). The proposed electrochemical immunosensor had excellent selectivity, reproducibility and stability. Good performance was observed for sensitive determination of APOE4 in human serum sample, which provided a strong support for the detection of APOE4 and early clinical prevention of AD.

Key words: APOE4, CeZnO nanoparticle, Alzheimer’s disease, Label-free immunosensor