An electrochemical biosensor for the assay of alpha-fetoprotein-L3 with practical applications

  • Biosens Bioelectron. 2017 Jan 15:87:352-357. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2016.08.071.
Jinlong Li  1 ,  Tao Gao  2 ,  Shiyu Gu  2 ,  Jun Zhi  2 ,  Jie Yang  2 ,  Genxi Li  3
Affiliations
  • 1. State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, Department of Biochemistry, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, PR China; Department of Laboratory Medicine, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Southeast University, Nanjing 210003, PR China.
  • 2. State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, Department of Biochemistry, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, PR China.
  • 3. State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, Department of Biochemistry, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, PR China; Center for Molecular Recognition and Biosensing, School of Life Sciences, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, PR China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 27587360 DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2016.08.071
Abstract

The detection of alpha-fetoprotein-L3 (AFP-L3) is of great importance for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis, but remains unsatisfactory owing to poor sensitivity and complex operating steps. In this work, a simple and sensitive method has been proposed for the detection of AFP-L3. Firstly, biotinylated Lens culinaris agglutinin-integrated silver nanoparticles (B-LCA-AgNPs) is fabricated. Owing to the specific interaction between Lens culinaris agglutinin and AFP-L3, AFP-L3 can be detected directly through the electrochemical signal readout of AgNPs, avoiding separated steps used in clinical practice. Furthermore, after the recognition between B-LCA-AgNPs and AFP-L3, large amount of AgNPs can be gathered at the binding site through avidin-biotin interactions, which can amplify the signal. Therefore, detection of AFP-L3 can be sensitively achieved. Moreover, compared with the other approaches, this new method has a better linear correlation (25-15,000pg/mL) and a lower detection limit (12pg/mL). Also, the new method developed in this work has been demonstrated to have good stability and reproducibility for the assay of AFP-L3 in human serum samples, so, it may hold a great application prospect in clinical diagnostics.

Keywords
AFP-L3; Electrochemical biosensor; Lens culinaris agglutinin.
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