Piezotronic-effect enhanced drug metabolism and sensing on a single ZnO nanowire surface with the presence of human cytochrome P450.

Cytochromes P450 (CYPs) enzymes are involved in catalyzing the metabolism of various endogenous and exogenous compounds. A rapid analysis of drug metabolism reactions by CYPs is required because they can metabolize 95% of current drugs in drug development and effective therapies. Here, we describe a study of piezotronic-effect enhanced drug metabolism and sensing by utilizing a single ZnO nanowire (ZnO NW) device. Owing to the unique hydrophobic feature of a ZnO NW that provides a desirable "microenvironment" for the immobilization of biomolecules, our device can effectively stimulate the tolbutamide metabolism by decorating a ZnO NW with cytochrome P4502C9/CYPs reductase (CYP2C9/CPR) microsomes. By applying an external compressive strain to the ZnO nanowire, the piezotronic effect, which plays a primary role in tuning the transport behavior of a ZnO NW utilizing the created piezoelectric polarization charges at the local interface, can effectively enhance the performance of the device. A theoretical model is proposed using an energy band diagram to explain the experimental data. This study provides a potential approach to study drug metabolism and trace drug detection based on the piezotronic effect.