Rational Design of Mxene-Nickel Oxide–Reduced Graphene Oxide-Based Nanobiosensor for Highly Selective Detection of Influenza Virus and Viral Protein

Influenza viruses can cause epidemic through inter-human transmission and the social consequences of viral transmission are incalculable. Current diagnostics for virus detection commonly relies on antibodies or nucleic acid as recognition reagent, however, more advanced and general method for the facile development of new biosensors is increasing in demand. In this study, we report the fabrication of an ultra-sensitive peptide-based nanobiosensor using a nickel oxide (NiO)–reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/MXene nanocomposite to detect influenza virus (H1N1 and H5N2) and viral protein. The detection mechanism relies on the specific interaction between H1N1 (QMGFMTSPKHSV) and H5N1 (GHPHYNNPSLQL) binding peptides anchored on the NiO–rGO/MXene/glassy carbon electrode surface and the viral surface protein hemagglutinin (HA). Our novel biosensor exhibited a significant increase in the electrical conductivity, porosity, active surface area, and active site availability (for trapping viruses). Based on these observations, the results showed that the developed nanobiosensor was capable of highly sensitive and specific detection of their corresponding influenza viruses and viral proteins with a very low detection limit (3.63 nM of H1N1 and 2.39 nM for H5N1, respectively) and good recovery. The findings demonstrate that the proposed NiO–rGO/MXene-based peptide biosensor can provide insights for developing a wide range of clinical screening tools for detecting affected patients