Detection of Glycosylated Hemoglobin on Boronic Acid-Modified Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-8 Nanoparticles

Glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is a relevant analyte to monitor the efficiency of a diabetic patient’s treatment regime. The development of a simple and sensitive glucose-testing method is critical for early diabetes diagnosis and treatment. In order to address this challenge, a sensitive electrochemical-optical immunosensor has been successfully fabricated utilizing zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 nanoparticles (NPs) (ZIF-8) doped with polydopamine for subtle exploration of diabetes biomarker HbA1c. Density functional theory is used to study glucose adsorption on boronic-acid (BA)-conjugated ZIF-8 NPs. Such analyses indicated that the BA over the ZIF-8 metal–organic framework greatly favored glucose adsorption on the surface. The adsorption of the glucose molecule is accomplished through the transfer of electrons from the conjugate to the glucose molecule, which enhances the sensing response. The polymerization nature of dopamine and the presence of NH 2 groups are harnessed to make a bonding structure between ZIF-8 and 4- carboxyphenylboronic acid . Furthermore, under optimal experimental conditions, the developed carboxyphenylboronic acid -conjugated ZIF-8-based sensor has shown responses within the range of 100–450 mg/dL glucose concentration through electrochemical studies. A dual-sensing technique using optical- and electrochemical-based detection was used for the sensing of HbA1c. The sensor was able to detect HbA1c in whole blood by an optical detection method within the clinically relevant range of 4.8–12.7% of HbA1c with a low limit of detection of 3.4% and a correlation coefficient of 0.98. The combined computational and experimental studies have shown that the ZIF-8 NP-based sensing matrix is a potential candidate for the nonenzymatic detection of glucose and HbA1c.