High-Throughput Strategy for Glycine Oxidase Biosensor Development Reveals Glycine Release from Cultured Cells

Glycine is an important biomarker in clinical analysis due to its involvement in multiple physiological processes. As such, the need for low-cost analytical tools for glycine detection is growing. As a neurotransmitter, glycine is involved in inhibitory and excitatory neurochemical transmission in the central nervous system. In this work, we present a 10 μM Pt-based electrochemical enzymatic biosensor based on the flavoenzyme glycine oxidase (GO) for localized real-time measurements of glycine. Among GO variants at position 244, the H244K variant with increased glycine turnover was selected to develop a functional biosensor. This biosensor relies on amperometric readouts and does not require additional redox mediators. The biosensor was characterized and applied for glycine detection from cells, mainly HEK 293 cells and primary rat astrocytes. We have identified an enzyme, GO H244K, with increased glycine turnover using mutagenesis but which can be developed into a functional biosensor. Noteworthy, a glycine release of 395.7 ± 123 μM from primary astrocytes was measured, which is ∼fivefold higher than glycine release from HEK 293 cells (75.4 ± 3.91 μM) using the GO H244K biosensor.