Facile fabrication of an ultrasensitive sandwich-type electrochemical immunosensor for the quantitative detection of alpha fetoprotein using multifunctional mesoporous silica as platform and label for signal amplification.

Journal: Talanta
Published:
Abstract

A novel and ultrasensitive sandwich-type electrochemical immunosensor was designed for the quantitative detection of alpha fetoprotein (AFP) using multifunctional mesoporous silica (MCM-41) as platform and label for signal amplification. MCM-41 has high specific surface area, high pore volume, large density of surface silanol groups (SiOH) and good biocompatibility. MCM-41 functionalized with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES), gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) and toluidine blue (TB) could enhance electrochemical signals. Moreover, primary antibodies (Ab1) and secondary antibodies (Ab2) could be effectively immobilized onto the multifunctional MCM-41 by the interaction between Au NPs and amino groups (-NH2) on antibodies. Using multifunctional MCM-41 as a platform and label could greatly simplify the fabrication process and result in a high sensitivity of the designed immunosensor. Under optimal conditions, the designed immunosensor exhibited a wide liner range from 10(-4) ng/mL to 10(3) ng/mL with a low detection limit of 0.05 pg/mL for AFP. The designed immunosensor showed acceptable selectivity, reproducibility and stability, which could provide potential applications in clinical monitoring of AFP.

Authors
Yulan Wang, Xiaojian Li, Wei Cao, Yueyun Li, He Li, Bin Du, Qin Wei