Highly Sensitive Immunoassay of Lung Cancer Marker Carcinoembryonic Antigen Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering of Hollow Gold Nanospheres

• Published in: Analytical chemistry (Washington) Vol. 81; no. 8; pp. 3029 - 3034
• Main Authors: Chon, Hyangah, Lee, Sangyeop, Son, Sang Wook, Oh, Chil Hwan, Choo, Jaebum
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 15.04.2009
• Subjects: Analytical chemistry; Antigens; Biological and medical sciences; Biomarkers, Tumor - analysis; Carcinoembryonic Antigen - analysis; Chemistry; Colorimetry; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Exact sciences and technology; Feasibility Studies; Gold; Gold - chemistry; Immunoassay; Immunoassay - methods; Immunology; Lung cancer; Lung Neoplasms - immunology; Lung Neoplasms - metabolism; Medical sciences; Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry; Microspheres; Miscellaneous; Oncology; Pneumology; Reproducibility of Results; Scattering; Sensitivity and Specificity; Spectrum Analysis, Raman - methods; Surface Properties; Time Factors; Tumors of the respiratory system and mediastinum; Carcinoembryonic antigen; Gold; Chemical analysis; Enzyme; Lung cancer; Detection limit; Surface Enhanced Raman Spectrometry; Ultratrace compound; Marker; Diffusion; Immunological method
• ISSN: 0003-2700; 1520-6882
• DOI: 10.1021/ac802722c

A quick and reproducible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based immunoassay technique, using hollow gold nanospheres (HGNs) and magnetic beads, has been developed. Here, HGNs show strong enhancement effects from individual particles because hot spots can be localized on the pinholes in the hollow particle structure. Thus, HGNs can be used for highly reproducible immunoanalysis of cancer markers. Magnetic beads were used as supporting substrates for the formation of the immunocomplex. This SERS-based immunoassay technique overcomes the problem of slow immunoreaction caused by the diffusion-limited kinetics on a solid substrate because all of the reactions occur in solution. For the validation of our SERS immunoassay, a well-known lung cancer marker, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), was used as a target marker. According to our experimental results, the limit of detection (LOD) was determined to be 1−10 pg/mL, this value being about 100−1000 times more sensitive than the LOD of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Furthermore, the assay time took less than 1 h, including washing and optical detection steps.