Theranostics 2016; 6(10):1732-1739. doi:10.7150/thno.16129 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, School of Chemistry & Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, P. R. China.
2. Translational Medicine Center, Changzheng Hospital, The Second Military Medical University, P. R. China.
3. Laboratory of Signal Transduction, Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital, The Second Military Medical University, P. R. China.
†These authors contributed equally.
Determination of disease biomarkers in clinical samples is of crucial significance for disease monitoring and public health. The dominating format is enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), which subtly exploits both the antigen-antibody reaction and biocatalytic property of enzymes. Although enzymes play an important role in this platform, they generally suffer from inferior stability and less tolerant of temperature, pH condition compared with general chemical product. Here, we demonstrate a metal-linked immunosorbent assay (MeLISA) based on a robust signal amplification mechanism that faithfully replaces the essential element of the enzyme. As an enzyme-free alternative to ELISA, this methodology works by the detection of α-fetoprotein (AFP), prostatic specific antigen (PSA) and C-reactive protein (CRP) at concentrations of 0.1 ng mL-1, 0.1 ng mL-1 and 1 ng mL-1 respectively. It exhibits approximately two magnitudes higher sensitivity and is 4 times faster for chromogenic reaction than ELISA. The detection of AFP and PSA was further confirmed by over a hundred serum samples from hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and prostate cancer patients respectively.
Keywords: MeLISA