α 1-Acid glycoprotein (α 1-AGp) is a critical plasma protein that acts as a biomarker for different diseases when produced in large amounts (>1.2 mg ml−1). Therefore, selective, label-free, and fast detection of α 1-AGp in human serum is essential. This article presents the development of selective coatings based on molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) matrix with boronate-affinity and Cu2O-decorated reduced graphene oxide (Cu2O-rGO) nanomaterials. The MIP-Cu2O-rGO hybrid coatings are fabricated on quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) to develop biomimetic α 1-AGp sensors. The MIP:Cu2O-rGO ratio is optimized to enhance sensing properties. Thus-designed MIP-Cu2O-rGO/QCM sensor performs sensitive and specific detection of α 1-AGp in complex mixtures. The initial assessment of the MIP-Cu2O-rGO/QCM sensor reveals an eight-fold increase in the response toward α 1-AGp compared to non-imprinted polymer. The MIP-Cu2O-rGO/QCM sensor exhibits high sensitivity (16.28 Hz ng−1 ml−1) and a low limit of detection (0.25 ng ml−1). When compared with multiple biorelevant analytes such as bovine serum albumin, lysozyme, glucose, fructose, and uric acid, the sensor shows high selectivity due to suitably oriented imprints or interaction sites that are tailored for α 1-AGp recognition. Furthermore, the MIP-Cu2O-rGO/QCM sensor can effectively detect 150–200 ng ml−1 of α 1-AGp in spiked human serum samples with a recovery rate of ∼92%. The results achieved in this study are compared with the relevant literature. The MIP-Cu2O-rGO/QCM sensor can be suitably used for the label-free, precise detection of α 1-AGp in complex mixtures.
The elevated level of very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) in the blood is associated with coronary heart disease; therefore, its detection is of significant clinical importance. In this work, molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) layers fabricated with ZnO nanoparticles are developed for gravimetric sensing of VLDL. The use of methacrylic acid (MAA) and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) as functional co-monomers in an optimized ratio of 1:1 for MIP synthesis controls the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity; thus, yielding highly tailored recognition sites having adequate stability. The as-prepared ZnO nanoparticles are characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transformation infrared (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) before incorporating into the MIP matrix. The template concentration in MIP is also varied to select its optimal amount, i.e., 50 µL of 50 µg/mL VLDL solution for enhanced sensor performance. Sensor measurements reveal that the ZnO-MIP has a sensitivity of 19.285 Hz.ng-1mL-1 for VLDL, which is about 16-fold higher than the reference ZnO-NIP (non-imprinted polymer) channel. Furthermore, the ZnO-MIP sensor exhibits high selectivity for VLDL as the sensor response is 6 and 3 times higher compared to α1-acid glycoprotein and human serum albumin (HSA), respectively. Finally, the performance of the developed sensor setup is evaluated for the detection of VLDL in human serum samples indicating its potential for reliable analysis of VLDL in complex biofluids.
The detection of human serum albumin (HSA) is of significant clinical importance in disease diagnoses. In this work, polymer-based synthetic receptors are designed by incorporating Ag-ZnS microspheres in molecularly imprinted poly(methacrylic acid-co-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate) (MIPs) for the gravimetric detection of HSA. Among different compositions of Ag-ZnS@MIPs, MIPs having methacrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate volume ratio of 3:2 exhibit enhanced HSA sensitivity in the concentration range of 5–200 ng/mL. A remarkably low threshold limit of detection (LOD = 0.364 ng/mL) is achieved with quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) based gravimetric sensors. Furthermore, the Ag-ZnS@MIPs/QCM sensors show high selectivity for HSA compared to other proteins, e.g., bovine serum albumin (BSA), glycoprotein, ribonuclease, and lysozyme. Hence, the gravimetric quantification of HSA realizes a highly sensitive, selective, and label-free detection mechanism with a limit of quantification down to 1.1 ng/mL.
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