Electrochemical Characterization of Dopamine in Neural Cells With Flexible Biosensors

Dopamine is critical for the physiological function and plays a crucial role in the discovery of neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Improving the measurement of this neurotransmitter could improve treatment, diagnosis, and prognosis of neurological disorders. Graphene's outstanding biocompatibility and electrical conductivity have caused it to become a widely used material in cellular interfacing and neurotransmitter characterization. However, graphene has been rarely used to investigate cellular systems after introducing trauma. Sensing dopamine on the cellular level and on the microscale can lead to provide a point-of-care diagnostics for traumatic brain injury patients. The sensitivity of graphene biosensor to different concentrations of dopamine was evaluated in the dynamic range of 0.1–100 µM, and the limit of detection of biosensor was estimated to be 180 µM. In this work, a 3D-printed graphene biosensor was used to characterize the dopamine levels as a real-time detector of neurotransmitters. We used cyclic voltammetry (CV) to measure the response of graphene biosensors to neurotransmitter changes, in addition, to evaluate the effect of UV irradiation as the injury stimulant on the electrical properties of graphene biosensors. We demonstrated that the 3D-printed graphene could detect significant changes in the CV profiles of N27 dopaminergic neural cells cultured on the graphene device in the face of trauma.