A Novel Fluorescent and Electrochemical Dual-Responsive Immunosensor for Sensitive and Reliable Detection of Biomarkers Based on Cation-Exchange Reaction

Sensitive and reliable detection of biomarkers is of vital importance in tumor early detection and clinical therapy. A novel fluorescent/electrochemical dual-responsive immunosensing platform for reliable and sensitive quantification of biomarkers was designed based on cation-exchange reaction. To construct such a versatile platform, the model analyte, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), was captured by magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles bound with primary antibodies (Fe3O4-Ab1) and then recognized by the detection antibodies conjugated complex containing poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM), carbon nanotube (CNT) and carboxyl functionalized CdSe nanocrystals (NCs) (CNT-PAMAM-CdSe NCs-Ab2). Via ligand exchange, the stable CdSe nanocrystals were easily functionalized with carboxylate ion (CdSe–COO-) and showed high hydrophilicity. The CdSe–COO- was effectively and densely conjugated to CNT coated dendrimer PAMAM that possesses large specific surface area. Finally, the target CEA was detected based on cation-exchange reaction (CER) by adding Ag+ to release thousands of cations Cd2+, which were detected by fluorescence and electrochemistry simultaneously. The electrochemical measurement was performed by directly detecting Cd2+ through square wave voltammetry (SWV), which displayed an excellent correlation with CEA from 5 pg/mL to 50 ng/mL, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 1.7 pg/mL. The fluorescence detection was implemented since free Cd2+ could trigger the weak fluorescence metal-sensitive dyes (Rhod-5N) to generate extremely high fluorescence signal. The fluorescence results showed the LOD for CEA detection was 0.25 pg/mL with a calibration curve range from 1 pg/mL to 20 ng/mL. The dual signal outputs showed an attractively self-correcting ability, which provides the capability of avoiding false positive signal and making the detection result more reliable. The proposed dual-responsive platform holds great promises for biomarkers detection in clinical diagnostics and therapy.