Amylase hydrolyses starch molecules to produce smaller oligosaccharides and sugars. Amylases are of great importance in biotechnology and nd application in fermentation, detergents, food and the paperfi industry. The measurement of ?-amylase activity in serum and urine has been used in the diagnosis of
acute pancreatitis. Salivaryamylase has also been shown to be a stress indicator. Sensor coatings suitable
for the detection of ?-amylase activity have been developed. Oligosaccharides such as glycogen and
amylopectin were spin-coated onto gold coated quartz crystals with a base frequency of 10MHz. The
filmsweresubsequentlycross-linkedwith hexamethylenediisocyanate.Film degradationwasmonitored
withaquartz crystalmicrobalance(QCM) andelectrochemicalimpedance measurements. Thefilmswere
shown to be stable in phosphate buffered saline (PBS). Addition of ?-amylase to the solution resulted in
the rapid degradation of the lms. The maximum rate of degradation was found to be stronglyfi
dependent on the amylase activity in the range typically found in serum when diagnosing pancreatitis
(0.08–8U/ml). Sensor responses in serum were found to be very similar to those obtained in buffer
indicating the absence of non-speci c binding.fi
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