Issue 16, 2015

Anti-epidermal growth factor receptor conjugated mesoporous zinc oxide nanofibers for breast cancer diagnostics

Abstract

We report the fabrication of an efficient, label-free, selective and highly reproducible immunosensor with unprecedented sensitivity (femto-molar) to detect a breast cancer biomarker for early diagnostics. Mesoporous zinc oxide nanofibers (ZnOnFs) are synthesized by electrospinning technique with a fiber diameter in the range of 50–150 nm. Fragments of ZnOnFs are electrophoretically deposited on an indium tin oxide glass substrate and conjugated via covalent or electrostatic interactions with a biomarker (anti-ErbB2; epidermal growth factor receptor 2). Oxygen plasma treatment of the carbon doped ZnOnFs generates functional groups (–COOH, –OH, etc.) that are effective for the conjugation of anti-ErbB2. ZnOnFs without plasma treatment that conjugate via electrostatic interactions were also tested for comparison. Label-free detection of the breast cancer biomarker by this point-of-care device is achieved by an electrochemical impedance technique that has high sensitivity (7.76 kΩ μM−1) and can detect 1 fM (4.34 × 10−5 ng mL−1) concentration. The excellent impedimetric response of this immunosensor provides a fast detection (128 s) in a wide detection test range (1.0 fM–0.5 μM). The oxy-plasma treated ZnOnF immunoelectrode shows a higher association constant (404.8 kM−1 s−1) indicating a higher affinity towards the ErbB2 antigen compared to the untreated ZnOnF immunoelectrode (165.6 kM−1 s−1). This sensor is about an order of magnitude more sensitive than the best demonstrated in the literature based on different nanomaterials and about three orders of magnitude better than the ELISA standard for breast cancer biomarker detection. This proposed point-of-care cancer diagnostic offers several advantages, such as higher stability, rapid monitoring, simplicity, cost-effectiveness, etc., and should prove to be useful for the detection of other bio- and cancer markers.

Graphical abstract: Anti-epidermal growth factor receptor conjugated mesoporous zinc oxide nanofibers for breast cancer diagnostics

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Jan 2015
Accepted
12 Mar 2015
First published
17 Mar 2015

Nanoscale, 2015,7, 7234-7245

Author version available

Anti-epidermal growth factor receptor conjugated mesoporous zinc oxide nanofibers for breast cancer diagnostics

Md. A. Ali, K. Mondal, C. Singh, B. Dhar Malhotra and A. Sharma, Nanoscale, 2015, 7, 7234 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR00194C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements