Adsorption-Based Micro/Nanosensors for Protein Detection: Influence of Protein Conformation Changes and Analyte Depletion on the Sensor Response

Proper modeling of biosensor time response should include all processes relevant for sensor signal generation. This is essential for reliable interpretation of measurement results, which affects conclusions on the presence and amount of biological agents in an analyzed sample, and also conclusions on the analyzed characteristics of biomolecular interactions. In this paper we present a model of time response of adsorption-based protein micro/nanosensors, which besides the reversible adsorption of analyte molecules includes depletion of the sample due to adsorption of molecules on the sensing surface, as well as the conformation change of the adsorbed molecules. We then use a model for the analysis of the separate influence of each of these processes on the response, as well as their joint effect. The results show that neglecting any of the two mentioned processes may lead to an erroneous interpretation of measurement results. Therefore the presented sensor response model is of importance for the improvement of accuracy of biomolecular detection and quantification.