A universal approach to the fabrication of reusable EGOFET-based aptasensors with track-etched membranes for biorecognition layers†

Nowadays, biosensor platforms based on various organic electrolytic transistors are in great demand due to their ability to specifically determine a wide range of biological analytes with extreme sensitivity. The main drawback of such platforms is their disposability at relatively high costs, preventing widespread application. In this work, we elaborate and successfully demonstrate a proof of concept for a universal approach for the fabrication of a reusable EGOFET-based aptasensor using polymer track-etched membranes as cheap disposable elements for biorecognition layers. We defined the most suitable pore size of track-etched membranes, which was enough for the penetration of viral particle and their capture near the current-carrying layer of EGOFET. The sensitivity of the fabricated EGOFET-based aptasensor to influenza A virus was comparable with disposal EGOFET-based biosensors having a biorecognition layer placed directly on the semiconducting layer. The limit of detection of the fabricated device was 8 × 10⁴ VP mL⁻¹, which was superior to those of antibody-based rapid analysis test systems (1 × 10⁶–4 × 10⁸ VP mL⁻¹) but inferior to those of the PCR method (3 × 10²–1.2 × 10³ VP mL⁻¹). The elaborated approach paves the way for the simple development of universal point-of-care tools consisting of rapid, non-invasive miniaturized sensors for the detection of a wide range of analytes, which are recognizable by aptamers.