A DPP-DTT Field-Effect Transistor-Based Biosensor for Detecting Interleukin-6

The development of a simple, direct, and reliable approach for the rapid, specific, and sensitive determination of a protein could open up significant opportunities for the diagnosis of medical diseases. Poly[2,5-(2-octyldodecyl)-3,6-diketopyrrolopyrrole-alt-5,5-(2,5-di(thien-2-yl)thieno [3,2-b]thiophene)] (DPP-DTT) is a novel polymeric semiconducting material that can be easily fabricated into a transistor device with simple procedures. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a typical proinflammatory cytokine and an antiinflammatory myokine. Here, we demonstrate the first time the biosensing measurement of an antibody-immobilized DPP-DTT-based transistor for the specific detection of IL-6. The sensor shows a relatively sensitive detection range of 2.5 to 50 ng/ml. A dry sensing method is used as the detection procedure that results in a reliable sensing signal. We anticipate the results could open up significant opportunities for biosensing of proteins, and advance related diagnosis of biomarkers in diseases.