Adenosine reagent-free detection by co-immobilization of adenosine deaminase and phenol red on an optical biostrip.

Adenosine detection in human serum is important because this ribonucleoside has established clinical applications, modulating many physiological processes. Furthermore, a simple and cheap detection method is useful in adenosine production processes. Adenosine can be determined enzymatically using either S-adenosyl-homocysteine hydrolase and (3) [H]-adenosine, or adenosine kinase combined with GTP and luciferase, or an amperometric biosensor carrying adenosine deaminase (ADA), purine nucleoside phosphorylase, and xanthine oxidase. We developed a simple and cheap method relying on a transparent biostrip bearing ADA and the indicator phenol red (PR), co-immobilized to polyacrylamide, itself chemically adhered to a derivatized glass strip. The ADA-catalyzed conversion of adenosine to inosine and ammonia leads to a local pH alteration, changing the absorbance maximum of PR (from 425 to 567 nm), which is measured optically. The biostrip shows an analytical range 0.05-1.5 mM adenosine and is reusable when stored at 4 °C. When the biostrip was tested with serum, spiked with adenosine (70 and 100 μM), and filtered for protein and adenosine phosphates depletion, it showed good adenosine recovery. In summary, we show the proof-of-concept that adenosine can be determined reagent-free, at moderate sensitivity on an easy to construct, cheap, and reusable biostrip, based on commercially available molecular entities.