A New Optical Interferometric Biosensing System Enhanced with Nanoparticles for Alzheimer’s Disease in Serum

Abstract

In this scientific work, we demonstrate, for the first time, a new biosensing system and procedure to measure specifically the total Tau (T-Tau) protein in serum, one of the most relevant biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD is a progressive brain disorder that produces neuronal and cognitive dysfunction and affects a high percentage of people worldwide. For this reason, diagnosing AD at the earliest possible stage involves improving diagnostic systems. We report on the use of interferometric bio-transducers integrated with 65 microwells forming diagnostic KITs read-out by using the Interferometric Optical Detection Method (IODM). Moreover, biofunctionalized silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) acting as interferometric enhancers of the bio-transducers signal allow for the improvement of both the optical read-out signal and its ability to work with less-invasive biological samples such as serum instead of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). As a result, in this paper, we describe for the first time a relevant diagnostic alternative to detect Tau protein at demanding concentrations of 10 pg/mL or even better, opening the opportunity to be used for detecting other relevant AD-related biomarkers in serum, such as β-amyloid and phosphorylated Tau (P-Tau), neurofilaments, among others that can be considered relevant for AD.

A review on the new age methodologies for early detection of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease

“…Additionally, biofunctionalized SiO 2 NPs enhance bio-transducer signals and expand the system's applicability to less invasive serum samples instead of CSF. 30 Another group of researchers have developed a printed electrochemical biosensor using vertical graphene (VG) modified with gold nanoparticles (VG@nanoAu) to simultaneously detect four AD blood biomarkers (Aβ40/Aβ42, t-tau and p-tau181) at a time at a precision of pg/ml. 31 A similar kind of research is going on for early PD diagnosis.…”

Recent advances of biocompatible optical nanobiosensors in liquid biopsy: towards early non-invasive diagnosis

“…However, the modification of nanoprobes inside microfluidic chips and uniform injection of biological fluids involve multistep experiments, which may require systematic optimization before further clinical applications. 82,83 The misfolding of α-1-antitrypsin and P53 protein is closely associated with the development of liver and breast cancer. Caputo et al constructed an optical nanoprobe based on GO for the detection of α-1-antitrypsin in the plasma of patients with pancreatic cancer.…”