Electrochemical approach to detect apoptosis.

This paper reports an electrochemical approach for detection of apoptosis. Here we prepare a gold electrode modified with a helix peptide ferrocene (Fc)-GDGDEVDGC. Fc is used as an electroactive reporter and the peptide as a recognition and cleavage site of caspase-3, which is a special proteinase to apoptosis. Results show that this method may sensitively and specifically detect apoptotic cells with signal decline of 85%. This approach is different from the previous methods for apoptosis detection, because it does not need any fluorescent materials, expensive biological instruments, or complicated procedures.