Abstract
Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is a biomarker for prostate cancer (PCa), and a specific and reliable detection technique of PSMA is urgently required for PCa early diagnosis. A Love wave sensor has been widely studied for real-time sensing and highly sensitive applications, but the sensing unit needs special handling for selective detection purpose. In this study, we prepared a versatile Love wave sensor functionalized with molecularly-imprinted polymers (MIP), PSMA as the template molecule. To enhance the specific template bindings of MIP in pure aqueous solutions, facile reversible addition/fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) precipitation polymerization (RAFTPP) was used to produce surface hydrophilic polymer brushes on MIP. The presence of hydrophilic polymer brushes on MIP improved its surface hydrophilicity and significantly reduced their hydrophobic interactions with template molecules in pure aqueous media. In detection process, the acoustic delay-line is confederative to a microfluidic chip and inserted in an oscillation loop. The real-time resonance frequency of the MIP-based Love wave sensor to different concentrations of PSMA was investigated. The limit of detection (LOD) for this Love SAW sensor was 0.013 ng mL−1, which demonstrates that this sensor has outstanding performance in terms of the level of detection.
Highlights
Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancers in men
A 20 μL prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) pre-polymerization solution was spin-coated on the Love surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensing unit
A Love SAW sensor based on hydrophilic molecularly-imprinted polymers (MIP) for PSMA detection was described in this study
Summary
Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most common cancers in men. Early detection of PCa mainly depends on serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing, which is a valuable tool in the staging and monitoring of PCa. In order to ensure specific recognition for target cancer markers, proteins are typically used as recognition biomolecules attached on the sensor surface, using various attachment techniques These natural biomolecules are difficult to produce, expensive, or with limited lifetime and applicability. The synthesized MIP with hydrophilic polymer brushes on the surface can significantly improve the surface hydrophilicity and enhance the sensitivity and selectivity of the fabricated Love SAW sensor [16]. This novel sensor provided a simple and reliable technique for PSMA detection in biological samples and as a concept to perfect the MIP-based sensor for trace detection
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