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We report on the development of an enzyme-amplified sandwich-type immunosensor based on a thin gold film sputtered on an anodic nanoporous niobium oxide (Au@Nb2O5) electrode. The electrocatalytic activity of enzymatically amplified electroactive species and a stable electrode consisting of Au@Nb2O5 were used to obtain a powerful signal amplification of the electrochemical immunobiosensor. The method using this electrochemical biosensor based on an Au@Nb2O5 electrode provides a much better performance than those based on conventional bulk gold or niobium oxide electrodes. Our novel approach does not require any time-consuming cleaning steps to yield reproducible electrochemical signals. In addition, the strong adhesion of gold films on the niobium oxide electrodes offers a very stable substrate during electrochemical biosensing. Cyclic voltammetry measurements indicate that non-specific binding of proteins to the modified Au@Nb2O5 surface is sufficiently low to be ignored in the case of our novel system. Finally, we demonstrated the ability of the biosensor based on an Au@Nb2O5 offering the enhanced performance with a high resolution and sensitivity. Therefore, it is expected that the biosensor based on an Au@Nb2O5 has great potential for highly efficient biological devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years there has been great progress in applying FET-type biosensors for highly sensitive biological detection. Among them, the ISFET (ion-sensitive field-effect transistor) is one of the most intriguing approaches in electrical biosensing technology. Here, we review some of the main advances in this field over the past few years, explore its application prospects, and discuss the main issues, approaches, and challenges, with the aim of stimulating a broader interest in developing ISFET-based biosensors and extending their applications for reliable and sensitive analysis of various biomolecules such as DNA, proteins, enzymes, and cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]