Advances in xanthine biosensors and sensors: A review

Xanthine is derived from hypoxanthine by xanthine oxidase (XOD), a flavoprotein containing molybdenum and non-haem iron, sulfur and from guanine by guanine deaminase enzyme. Xanthine is oxidized into uric acid by XOD. Xanthine is used as an indicator of fish freshness, based on the reactions in which ATP is degraded into xanthine and its quantity increases with time of fish death. Fresh fish meat is required in food industry for making high quality items. The determination of xanthine in biological fluids is also used in diagnosing and curing many diseases like renal failure, gout, xanthinuria, hyperuricemia. Various methods are available for detection of xanthine but most of them are complicated, time consuming less sensitive & specific and require expensive instrumental setup and trained person to operate. Enzyme based biosensors and non enzymic sensors overcome these disadvantages, as these are simple, rapid, specific, sensitive and easy to operate. Present review describes xanthine biosensors, which work optimally between pH 3.5–9.0, temperature 25 °C-65 °C, xanthine concentration ranging from 0.001–50 × 10⁴ µM. These biosensors have also been used to measure xanthine concentration in beverages, urine and serum samples. Various modified electrodes have been discussed for the detection of xanthine using both enzymatic and non-enzymatic approaches in the present review.