This paper reports a breathable flexible glucose biosensor with excellent flexibility and moisture/air permeability. The biosensor's electrodes are embedded in a flexible porous nanofiber polyimide substrate through electrospinning. The porous structure of this nanofiber substrate makes the biosensor breathable, effectively avoiding the body-fluid accumulation that can significantly affect measurement accuracy in long-term wearable monitoring. It also completely embeds the electrodes in the substrate preventing them from falling off, which frequently occurs in a surface-electrode structure, effectively avoiding degradation of sensing performance over time. The air-permeable film substrate was obtained by optimizing the manufacturing parameters, including spinning voltage, flow rate, solution concentration, and electrospinning distance. Three electrodes were then embedded on the flexible air-permeable substrate by inkjet printing to form the breathable glucose biosensor. The fabricated breathable flexible glucose biosensor was found to have excellent moisture (-3954.8 g/[m(2) x 24 h]) and air (-63.59 mm/s) permeability. A bending test verified the firmness of the embedded structure, and the microscopic connectivity and conductivity of the electrodes were stable. This breathable biosensor can precisely detect glucose in the linear range of 0-25 mM with a detection limit of 0.128 mM.
A novel micro surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor with multiple sensing areas was designed and fabricated, which realized the joint detection of various early liver cancer markers simultaneously. The SPR sensor has two sensing areas constructed by different metal layers to realize the separation of resonance peaks, which makes it possible to detect multiple substances by one single sensor. Then the two sensing regions were modified by "monoclonal antibody - AFP - polyclonal antibody" and "DNA probe - miRNA-125b - S9.6 antibody" respectively. These two sandwich structures enhance the specific detection of Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and miRNA-125b. The feasibility of the micro SPR sensor for joint diagnosis of early liver cancer markers was verified.
Early diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is an important means to raise the survival rate of patients. Multi -marker combined detection is a powerful tool of early HCC diagnosis. Traditional detection methods are not effective and accurate because it is difficult to achieve combined detection of multiple markers. In this paper, we selected Alpha Fetoprotein (AFP) and miRNA-125b as the combined detection markers to improve the simultaneously diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. The anti-AFP monoclonal antibody and the DNA probes paired with the miRNA-125b were modified on the surface of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor respectively to specifically recognize AFP and miRNA-125b in serum. In order to enhance the SPR response signal and detection sensitivity, Double Antibody Sandwich Method (DASM) and S9.6 antibody enhanced method were applied to achieve low detection limit of the two markers. Experimental results showed that AFP (25-400 ng/mL) was accurately detected by DASM and the detection limit of miRNA-125b by S9.6 antibody enhanced method reached 123.044 pM. These results verified the feasibility of the multi -marker detection method in early diagnosis of HCC.