Integrating boronate affinity controllable-oriented surface imprinting nylon wire and pH-triggered allochroic-graphene oxide for ultrasensitive detection of glycoprotein

Abstract

Immunoassay plays a leading role for specific and sensitive detection of glycoprotein, in which antibodies and high-sensitivity methods are usually used for specific recognition and signal output, respectively. However, antibodies are usually costly, unstable, and poorly reproducible, and traditional signal output methods have different disadvantages. Here, we integrated boronate affinity controllable-oriented surface imprinting nylon wire (BAC-OSINW) and allochroic-graphene oxide (AGO) for fast, sensitive and specific detection of glycoprotein. The state-of-the-art detection strategy depended on the ELISA-like immunosandwich principle. The target glycoprotein is first specifically captured by the BAC-OSINW based on molecularly imprinted recognition, and then labeled by AGO, which can specifically recognize the cis-diol of glycoprotein under physiological pH, and performed signal output by pH-triggered allochroism. Compared with the commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the proposed method herein exhibits lower limit of detection (LOD), wider linear range, lower sample volume requirement, lower cost, less time-consuming, and can be reused. The proposed detection method has universal applicability, and provides ultrahigh sensitivity, yielding a LOD of 0.86 ng mL−1 and 24 pg mL−1 for transferrin and leukaemia inhibitory factor, respectively. Therefore, this cost-efficient and easy-to-use approach possesses great prospect in many applications, particularly in early clinical cancer diagnosis.