Biosensors thermometric devices

Enzyme sensors can measure analytes that are the substrates of enzymatic reactions. Thermometric sensors can measure the heat produced by the enzyme reaction [31], while optical or electrochemical transducers measure a product produced or cofactor consumed in the reaction. For example, several urea sensors are based on the hydrolysis of urea by urease producing ammonia, which can be detected by an ammonium ion-selective ISE or ISFET [48] or a conductometric device [49]. Amperometric enzyme sensors are based on the measurement of an electroactive product or cofactor [50] an example is the glucose oxidase-based sensor for glucose, the most commercially successful biosensor. Enzymes are incorporated in amperometric sensors in functionalised monolayers [51], entrapped in polymers [52], carbon pastes [53] or zeolites [54]. Other catalytic biological systems such as micro-organisms, abzymes, organelles and tissue slices have also been combined with electrochemical transducers. 

Test strips, which are available for the determination of about ten low-molecular mass substances (metabolites, drugs, and electrolytes) and eight enzymes [356], can be considered as precursors of optoelectronic biosensors. Efficient optoelectronic sensors based on immobilized dyes have been devised for the determination of glucose, urea, penicillin, and human serum albumin [357]. Other approaches use immobilized luciferase or horseradish peroxidase to assay ATP or NADH or, when coupled with oxidases, to measure uric acid or cholesterol. These principles have not yet been generally accepted for use in routine analysis. Thermistor devices involving immobilized enzymes or antibodies for a number of clinically relevant substances have also been described. Thermometric enzyme linked immunosorbent assays are being routinely employed for monitoring the production of monoclonal antibodies. 

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