Dual-Ionomer-Based Device: Acetylcholine Transport and Nonenzymatic Sensing

Abstract

The malfunctioning in the release of acetylcholine (ACh⁺), leading to consequential damages in the neural system, has become an impulsion for the development of numerous progressive transport and detection gadgets. However, several challenges, such as laterality and complexity of transport devices, low precision of amperometric detection systems, and sumptuous, multistaged enzymatic quantification methods, have not yet been overcome. Herein, ionomers, because of their selective ion transporting nature, are chosen as suitable candidates for being implemented into both targeted ACh⁺ delivery and sensing systems. Based on these two approaches, for the very first time in the literature, the disulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) membrane is concurrently (i) used in the mimicry of transduction of the electrical-to-ionic signal in a neural network as "Acetylcholine Pen" (ACh⁺ Pen) and (ii) operated as a highly sensitive, conductivity-based ACh⁺ quantifier. Our dual device, being able to operate under an actual action potential of 55 mV_bias, shows a strong potential of future applicability in real-time ionic delivery-and-sensing systems.

Keywords: acetylcholine transport; biosensor; impedance spectroscopy; ionomer; membrane.