An electrochemical assay for DNA methylation based on 3D nanostructured gold electrode and methyl binding domain protein

This paper presents an electrochemical detection method of DNA methylation using a 3D nanostructured gold electrode and a methyl binding domain protein 1 (MBD 1). For sensitive detection of DNA methylation, the 3D nanostructured gold electrode is developed by a combination of an electrochemical deposition method and a conventional photolithography process. It renders 22-fold larger active surface area than that of the plain gold electrode. In addition, the methyltransferase activity is measured by the label-free based differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) response by the interaction of MBD 1 to the methylated site. The proposed detection method is able to detect the methyltransferase activity from 0.1 to 50 U/ml.