Fabrication of near infrared light responsive photoelectrochemical immunosensor for in vivo detection of melanoma cells

Effective and convenient detection of melanoma cells with high sensitivity is essential to identify malignant melanoma in its early stage. However, the existing detection methods, such as immunohistochemical analysis, are too complicated and time-consuming to realize the convenient in vivo and in situ detection. Herein, a near infrared responsive photoelectrochemical (PEC) immunosensor is proposed with plasmonic Au nanoparticles-photonic TiO2 nanocaves (Au/TiO2 NCs) as photon harvest and conversion transducer and antibody as cell recognition unit. The micro-antibody/Au/TiO2 NCs photoelectrode can easily in vivo distinguish melanoma cells and can realize sensitive detection of melanoma cells in short time of 1 min with a lowest limit of detection of 2 cell mL−1. The PEC immunosensor strategy not only allows us to pioneeringly implement sensitive in vivo bio-detection, but also opens up a new avenue for rational design of cell recognition units and micro-electrode for universal and reliable bio-detections.