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

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

ACS nano (2015-03-12)
Ning Wang, Caizhen Gao, Fei Xue, Yu Han, Tao Li, Xia Cao, Xueji Zhang, Yue Zhang, Zhong Lin Wang
ABSTRACT

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.

MATERIALS
Product Number
Brand
Product Description

Tolbutamide, European Pharmacopoeia (EP) Reference Standard
Supelco
Tolbutamide, analytical standard
Sigma-Aldrich
Sulfaphenazole, ≥98%