Gold Nanoparticles-MWCNT Based Aptasensor for Early Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Prostate cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed male malignancies and can be detected by prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as a biomarker. To detect PSA, several studies have proposed using antibodies, which are not economical and require a long reaction time. In this study, we propose to use self-assembled thiolated single-strand DNA on electrodes functionalized by multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) modified with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to realize a low-cost label-free electrochemical biosensor. In this regard, the PSA aptamer was immobilized via electrostatic adsorption on the surface of a screen-printed MWCNT/AuNPs electrode. The immobilization process was enhanced due to the presence of Au nanoparticles on the surface of the electrode. Surface characterization of the electrode at different stages of modification was performed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and contact angle for surface tension properties. The results showed an increase in surface roughness due to the absorbance of the aptamer on the electrode surfaces. The developed sensor has an extended linear range of 1–100 ng/mL, and a very low limit of detection down to 1 pg/mL. In addition, the reaction has a binding time of only five minutes on the developed electrodes. Investigations of the biosensor selectivity against several substances revealed an efficient selectivity for PSA detection. With this approach, low-cost biosensors with high sensitivity can be realized which have a wide linearity range and a low limit of detection, which are necessary for the early detection of prostate cancer.

Computational aptamer design for spike glycoprotein (S) (SARS CoV-2) detection with an electrochemical aptasensor

“…1 ). The increase in the hydrophilicity due to the presence of negatively charged phosphodiester backbone of DNA is also observed by other authors using different immobilization strategies (Alnaimi et al 2022 ; Bagheryan et al 2016 ; Kaur et al 2019 ) finding similar values. This measure is indicative of a modification of the surface from a morphological and chemical point of view, resulting in a more hydrophilic surface independently on the aptamer concentration used.…”

“…3 ), and higher aptamer concentrations do not increase significantly the amount of bounded aptamer suggesting that a saturation of the electrode surface is reached. Similar aptamer concentration has been used to saturate the electrode surface even using different chemistry (Alnaimi et al 2022 ; Bagheryan et al 2016 ; Eissa et al 2019 ).…”

“…Several configurations both on measurements type and aptamer immobilization strategies have been used to develop efficient electrochemical aptasensors (Radi and Abd-Ellatief 2021 ; Topkaya and Cetin 2021 ). Electrochemical aptasensor application can be found in different fields from cancer biomarkers (Negahdary et al 2019 ) to food contaminants (Wang et al 2020 ) up to whole cells (Ziółkowski et al 2021 ): examples of the different electrode configurations include a simple gold coated electrode (Chen and Guo 2013 ) or more complex systems like gold nanowires or nanoroads (Husna et al 2023 ), carbon nanotubes or multiwall (Liu et al 2010 ; Khan et al 2018 , Rezaei et al 2018 ; He et al 2020 ; Alnaimi et al 2022 ), graphene (Kaur et al 2019 ) or diamond (Asai et al 2020 ). Here, we present a simple way to check the goodness of the aptamer sequence that has been set up using a computational tool allowing to reduce the time to 3 weeks compared to the classical method named SELEX (systemic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment) which takes about 3–4 months and is more expensive.…”

An updated landscape on nanotechnology-based drug delivery, immunotherapy, vaccinations, imaging, and biomarker detections for cancers: recent trends and future directions with clinical success

“…An antibody-free PSA detector, which is of low-cost electrochemical biosensor, was developed using GNP-MWCNT (multi-walled carbon nanotubes)-based aptasensor with a lower detection limit of 1 pg/ml [ 208 ]. A new lung cancer biomarker, GM2 activator protein (GM2AP), was detected with a detection limit of < 1 pg/ml from human serum and urine samples using a PEI-GNP and phosphomolybdic acid (PMA) modified electrode [ 209 ].…”

Microfluidic Platform Integrated with Carbon Nanofibers-Decorated Gold Nanoporous Sensing Device for Serum PSA Quantification

“…In particular, electrochemical transducers exhibit superior sensitivity, portability and simplicity. The combination of these superior properties of electrochemical transducers with microfluidic platforms has paved the way to develop integrated devices with a wide range of applications in medicine, biochemistry, agri-food safety, environment security and industry [ 9 , 10 , 11 ]. Electrochemical detection allows interesting one-step electrode modifications, such as the dynamic hydrogen bubble template (DHBT) method that generates uniform gold nanopore structures (GNP), producing a large increase in determination sensitivity.…”