SERS lateral flow strip detection of serum biomarkers for noninvasive assessment of operative microwave ablation outcomes of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Operative microwave ablation (MWA) has become a superior curative treatment modality for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, rapid noninvasive assessment of the MWA outcomes of HCC patients remains technically challenging. Herein, a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)-lateral flow strip (LFS) immunosensor is reported for simultaneous quantification of two serum protein biomarkers – (C-C motif chemokine ligand 20) CCL20 and epidermal growth factor (EGF) proteins, which enables rapid noninvasive assessment of operative MWA outcomes of HCC patients. This biosensor is built with two test lines for CCL20 and EGF proteins using the encoded SERS probes, respectively. The integration of the SERS detection and the lateral flow immunoassay detection format yields high sensitivity, robust anti-interference ability, and ease-to-use. This biosensor achieves a limit of detection down to 0.064 ng/mL for CCL20 protein and 0.090 ng/mL for EGF protein with a wide dynamic detection range. Moreover, the SERS-LFS immunosensor is demonstrated with exceptional performance for quantitative detection of CCL20 and EGF proteins in clinical serum samples in a single test strip. The results reveal the discriminative levels of CCL20 and EGF proteins in serum samples of HCC patients undergoing complete and incomplete MWA, verifying the capability of our developed biosensor for rapid assessment of MWA outcomes. We believe that the developed SERS-LFS immunosensor could be applied to support medical professionals in clinical settings for improvement of MWA outcomes of HCC patients.