Characterization of a tethering system for biosensor applications

The immobilization of brain dopamine receptors (primary targets in the treatment of schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's chorea) on a solid support can represent an appealing strategy for the realization of biosensors for dopamine and dopaminergic drugs. Our final goal is the realization of an optical biosensor that allows parallel quantitative analysis, with different receptors, of neurotransmitters and related drugs. In our scheme, the active layer is constituted by dopaminergic receptors immobilized in biomimetic membranes tethered to a sensor surface. In order to preserve the biological activity of the neuroreceptors, the fabrication is carried out by soft lithography methods. In this report, we have characterised the active layer by scanning probe techniques, in order to test its quality and integrity, and by optical experiments involving the signal emitted by specific fluorescent ligands.