Towards pancreatic cancer diagnosis using EIS biochips

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most aggressive and lethal cancers in Europe and the United States. It has a very low 5 years-survival rate and its diagnosis is often late and imprecise due to the lack of specificity of currently used markers for PDAC. As previously demonstrated PDAC patients' sera may contain autoantibodies towards phosphorylated α-enolase (ENOA), which in combination with other standard markers can increase specificity in diagnosis of PDAC. In this context we realized a microfluidic platform with integrated EIS biosensors. We achieved a specific antibodies detection by immobilizing onto electrodes peptides corresponding to a portion of ENOA. Phosphorylation of peptides was found to influence the recognition of antibodies in PDAC patients' sera detected by the developed biochip thus validating the EIS technique as a strong tool for quick, cost-saving and label-free analysis of serum samples. Biochip results are in agreement with those from traditional techniques, such as ELISA and western blot, but measurements are much more sensitive and specific, increasing the possibility of PDAC diagnosis. In addition this approach is faster and more reproducible compared to traditional techniques making the developed biochips ideal for a quick, cost-saving and label-free analysis of serum samples.

Lab-on-Chip for Exosomes and Microvesicles Detection and Characterization

“…Once EVs have been lysed, the identification of the proteomic profile of MVs and exosomes has a strong impact in the assessment of the diagnostic and prognostic values of isolated extracellular vesicles. The protein content is typically analyzed by standard techniques, like Western Blot or proteomic methods [ 226 , 227 ], which may led to the identification of novel pathology biomarkers [ 228 , 229 ], but many examples of protein chips based on ELISA-like [ 230 , 231 , 232 , 233 ] or other automatized assays [ 234 ] may be also listed. As far as on-chip detection of protein biomarkers in exosomes inner content is concerned, this may be conveyed to lab on-chip downstream analytical modules and several efforts were dedicated to improve the limit of detection, including the use of different transduction and signal amplification approaches.…”

Biosensors for the Detection of Food Pathogens

“…In this case, the equivalent circuit consists of the ohmic resistance of the electrolytic solution (R s ), a double-layer capacitance (C dl ), an interfacial electron-transfer resistance (R et ) and a Warburg impedance (Z w ), which is associated with the diffusion of the redox probe. Among them, C dl and R et depend on the electrical properties of the solution/electrode interface and can be used to monitor the attachment of molecules [ 28 ] and cells [ 29 ]. As a result of specific biorecognition reactions, this method allows the detection of a specific type of bacteria or different bacteria present at the same time, even in complex matrices, thanks to a strong reduction of unspecific contributions to the signal.…”

Portable gliadin-immunochip for contamination control on the food production chain

“…EIS is a method suitable for both cellular [25,27] and molecular [28] analyses and it can be applied to the high throughput screening of drugs and toxic compounds on cell lines [29,30], cell-based sensors towards artificial taste organs [28] and the study of the dynamics of biorecognition events between molecules [31][32][33][34]. To fully exploit this promising technique we developed an impedimetric platform to detect gliadin from food samples.…”