Immobilization of specific antibody on SAM functionalized gold electrode for rabies virus detection by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

The rabies constitutes one of the most dangerous viruses causing many death cases every year. Each year approximately 55,000 people die of rabies, with high percentage of children. High percentages (99%) of the registered cases were in Asia and Africa. In order to fight this dangerous disease, many techniques are usually used for diagnostic but are usually complex, heavy, expensive, difficult to implement, requiring high-qualified personnel, and this is a necessity of developing new detection process. In this work, we describe the development of an immunological sensor based on functionalized gold electrode allowing rabies antigen detection. The biosensor is based on the immobilization of specific rabies antibodies onto functionalized gold microelectrode. The affinity interaction of the immobilized antibody with the specific antigen can be measured with low limit detection and with a good reproducibility with impedance spectroscopy. The non-specific interaction has been tested using the Newcastle antigen. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.