Abstract
A molecularly imprinted sensor was fabricated for alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) using an ionic liquid as a functional monomer. Ionic liquid possesses many excellent characteristics which can improve the sensing performances of the imprinted electrochemical sensor. To demonstrate this purpose, 1-[3-(N-cystamine)propyl]-3-vinylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ionic liquid [(Cys)VIMBF4] was synthesized and used as a functional monomer to fabricate an AFP imprinted polymerized ionic liquid film on a gold nanoparticle modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) surface at room temperature. After removing the AFP template, a molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor was successfully prepared. The molecularly imprinted sensor exhibits excellent selectivity towards AFP, and can be used for sensitive determination of AFP. Under the optimized conditions, the imprinted sensor shows a good linear response to AFP in the concentration range of 0.03 ng mL−1~5 ng mL−1. The detection limit is estimated to be 2 pg mL−1.
Highlights
Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) with a molecular weight of approximately 70 kDa is always considered as a vital and specific biomarker for diagnosing, treating, and the prognosis of liver cancer
To determine AFP concentration in human serum is extremely important for patients who suffer from liver cancer
Scanning electron microscopy was used to characterize the morphology of the gold nanoparticles Scanning electron microscopy was used to characterize the morphology of the gold modified glassy carbon electrode surface
Summary
Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) with a molecular weight of approximately 70 kDa is always considered as a vital and specific biomarker for diagnosing, treating, and the prognosis of liver cancer. AFP with high performances, many immunoassay methods based on fluorescence spectroscopy [2,3], chemiluminescence [4,5], electrochemiluminescence [6,7], enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay [8], surface plasmon resonance [9], electrochemical immunosensing [10,11] and photoelectrochemical sensing [12,13] have been successfully developed Some of these methods can give good sensitivity and selectivity for meeting the requirements for AFP determination, they still need to overcome many obstacles, such as time-consuming or sophisticated instruments, etc. On a Chitosan GCE surface, using AFP as a template, acrylamide as functional monomer and N,N-methylene bisacrylamide as crossing linker, a molecularly imprinted sensor was prepared for AFP [23] All these imprinted sensors show high sensitivity and selectivity. The molecularly imprinted procedure was carried out in an aqueous solution containing the AFP template, ionic liquid functional monomer and initiator.
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