Application of sulfur-doped graphene quantum dots@gold-carbon nanosphere for electrical pulse-induced impedimetric detection of glioma cells

Abstract

Glioma is the predominant brain tumor with high death rate. The successful development of biosensor to achieve an efficient detection of glioma cells at low concentration remains a great challenge for the personalized glioma therapy. Herein, an ultrasensitive pulse induced electrochemically impedimetric biosensor for glioma cells detection has been successfully fabricated. The 4–11 nm sulfur-doped graphene quantum dots (S-GQDs) are homogeneously deposited onto gold nanoparticles decorated carbon nanospheres (Au–CNS) by Au-thiol linkage to form S-GQDs@Au–CNS nanocomposite which acts as dual functional probe for enhancing the electrochemical activity as well as conjugating the angiopep-2 (Ang-2) for glioma cell detection. Moreover, the application of an externally electrical pulse at +0.6 V expend the surface of glioma cells to accelerate the attachment of glioma cells onto the Ang-2-conjugated S-GQDs@Au–CNS nanocomposite, resulting in the enhanced sensitivity toward glioma cell detection. An ultrasensitive impedimetric detection of glioma cells with a wide linear range of 100–100,000 cells mL−1 and a limit of detection of 40 cells mL−1 is observed. Moreover, the superior selectivity with long-term stability of the developed biosensor in human serum matrix corroborates the feasibility of using S-GQDs@Au–CNS based nanomaterials as the promising sensing probe for practical application to facilitate the ultrasensitive and highly selective detection of cancer cells.