Abstract
Herein, we have demonstrated highly sensitive real-time biospecific detection of a protein marker of hepatitis C—the core antigen of hepatitis C virus (HCVcoreAg)—using a nanowire (NW) biosensor. The primary element of the NW-biosensor is a chip with p-type conductance, bearing silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanowire structures on its surface. The nanowire structures are fabricated by gas-plasma treatment and electron beam lithography. The detection specificity was provided by sensitization of the sensor surface with aptamers against HCVcoreAg. The influence of buffer pH on the sensor response signal was studied. The effect of reverse polarity of the biosensor response signal with change from the acidic buffer pH to the neutral one was found. The lowest detectable HCVcoreAg concentration was determined to be 2.0 × 10−15 M in both acidic (pH 5.1) and neutral (pH 7.4) buffer solution. The proposed aptamer-sensitized sensor was also successfully applied to detect HCVcoreAg in serum samples of hepatitis C patients.
Highlights
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes either acute or chronic disease of the liver, which can lead to decompensated cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma [1]
Apart from biospecific “probe/target” interaction, the NW surface interacts with other part of the target molecule; the latter determines the occurrence of the reverse polarity of the sensor response signal
We have demonstrated that SOI-NW aptamer-sensitized biosensor allows one to perform label-free real-time detection of hepatitis C protein marker (HCVcoreAg) in buffer solution at 2.0 × 10−15 M
Summary
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) causes either acute or chronic disease of the liver, which can lead to decompensated cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma [1]. Unlike other types of hepatitis viruses, HCV is able to cause the development of chronic infection after the acute one, and this is what leads to cirrhosis and liver cancer in 50% to 90% of cases [2,3]. The cumulative 2015–2016 HCV treatment number reached 3 million [5]. The latter indicates that the current rate of hepatitis C treatment is very low [6]. For these reasons, HCV represents an acute problem of public health. Early diagnosis of HCV represents a key task that must be solved to provide the correct choice of HCV treatment strategy and tactics and to determine the Coatings 2020, 10, 753; doi:10.3390/coatings10080753 www.mdpi.com/journal/coatings
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