Hello,
Our group is interested to see the bdnf level in real time in epileptic rats since there are studies showing bdnf can increase seizure level.
We are interested in detecting bdnf level for epileptic rats over a long term. Is there any method for doing that? Such as Electrochemical sensor inserted inside the brain?
It's not outside the realms of possibility but I imagine a lot of work would need to go into developing a suitable sensor. A number of challenges need to be overcome which can take years and from the literature, I can find no suitable background information on BDNF to even give an educated guess (I don't know how it is normally metabolised or whether it shows any electrochemical activity).
There are two basic ways of detecting an analyte with electrochemical techniques. The first and most straightforward is to find a potential where your target analyte (in this case BDNF) is oxidised or reduced and measure the current. This should be proportional to your concentration but is dependent on a number of factors such as whether your analyte is easily oxidised/reduced electrochemically and, if it is, are other analytes also being oxidised/reduced at the same potential; if there are a lot of substances with a similar electrochemical profile in the ECF in vivo it would be very hard to pick out BDNF directly. This is the case for dopamine and serotonin along with their analytes, there are ways of adjusting the electrochemical techniques (such as fast scan cyclic voltammetry) but I can find no publications applying any electrochemical technique to BDNF or other neurotrophins.
The other main way to detect an analyte electrochemically is to make a biosensor by using an enzyme as a recognition unit and measure a current generated by the 2 or 3 step reactions (measuring something like hydrogen peroxide which might be produced as part of the enzymatic reaction). This requires a suitable enzyme/antibody to act as a recognition unit - it will need to be specific for BDNF and it will need to produce something that is easily measured electrochemically. Oxidase enzymes are ideal but I am not aware of any for BDNF. Perhaps an antibody could work but I've no experience with using antibodies as recognition units personally.
Your best bet might be microdialysis but unfortunately that may be too slow to get precise measurements to match the timelines of the observed seizures. There are ways of increasing the temporal resolution with microdialysis but these methods tend to incorporate an electrochemical sensor off-line. The other thing to bear in mind is that a microdialysis probe causes more gliosis and metabolic disruption than a microsensor.
I recommend the detailed suggestions of Dr. John Kealy for measuring the real time bdnf levels in epileptic rats. It is indeed an interesting task though needs much work for developing the required sensor while the literature information is also limited.
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