Label-Free Biosensing Method for the Detection of a Pancreatic Cancer Biomarker Based on Dielectrophoresis Spectroscopy

Abstract

Abstract:We show that negative dielectrophoresis (DEP) spectroscopy is an effective transduction mechanism of a biosensor for the diagnosis and prognosis of pancreatic cancer using the biomarker CA 19-9. A substantial change in the negative DEP force applied to functionalized polystyrene microspheres (PM) was observed with respect to both the concentration level of the pancreatic cancer biomarker CA 19-9 and the frequency of the electric field produced by a pearl shaped interdigitated gold micro-electrode. The velocity of repulsion of a set of PM functionalized to a monoclonal antibody to CA 19-9 was calculated for several concentration cutoff levels of CA 19-9, including 0 U/mL and 37 U/mL, at the frequency range from 0.5 to 2 MHz. The velocity of repulsion of the PM from the electrode was determined using a side illumination and an automated software using a real-time image processing technique that captures the Mie scattering from the PM. Since negative DEP spectroscopy is an effective transduction mechanism for the detection of the cutoff levels of CA 19-9, it has the potential to be used in the early stage diagnosis and in the prognosis of pancreatic cancer.

Nucleotide Identification in DNA Using Dielectrophoresis Spectroscopy

“…In a previous study, we showed that DEP spectroscopy was an effective method for the detection of the pancreatic cancer biomarker CA 19-9 in serum [32,33]. In this study, we show that this method, which does not rely on fluorescence labeling, can also be used in SNP genotyping in a short DNA strand, and it also has the potential to be used in sequencing.…”

“…To measure the DEP spectrum to characterize the nucleotide in ssDNA, we used the same experimental setup that we used to measure the concentration of CA 19-9 in spiked serum [33]. We developed a software package using Microsoft foundation classes in visual C++ in the Windows operating system.…”

Biosensor for the Characterization of Gene Expression in Cells

“…We recently demonstrated a label-free biosensing method for the detection of the pancreatic cancer biomarker CA 19-9 based on dielectrophoresis spectroscopy [25]. We demonstrated earlier that this method can detect a concentration of as little as 13 aM per polystyrene microsphere [26].…”