Sandwich-type electrochemical immunosensing of hypopharyngeal carcinoma biomarker carcinoembryonic antigen based on N-doped hollow mesoporous nanocarbon spheres/gold hybrids as sensing platform and gold/ferrocene as signal amplifier

In the present work, a highly sensitive sandwich-type electrochemical immunosensor of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) was developed by preparing N-doped hollow mesoporous nanocarbon spheres/gold hybrids (NHMN/Au) hybridsas sensing platformand Au/ferrocene (Au/Fc) as signal amplifiers. The large surface area and high conductivity as well as good biocompatibility of NHMN/Au can increase the loading of primary antibody (Ab(1)) and accelerate the electron transport rate of the electrode surface, while Au can carry immobilized secondary antibodies (Ab(2)) and Fc derivative (Fc-SH).By using Fc-SH as response probe, the experiments show that the peak current of probe could increase after occurring the specific recognition of Ab(1)-CEA-Ab(2), thus a novel sandwich-type immunosensor of CEA was developed. Finally, the proposed method for CEA detection was applied in human serum and the obtained results are satisfactory, indicating the developed method has important clinical applications for CEA determination.

Automated summary

In this study, a highly sensitive sandwich-type electrochemical immunosensor for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) detection was developed. N-doped hollow mesoporous nanocarbon spheres/gold hybrids (NHMN/Au) were used as the sensing platform and Au/ferrocene (Au/Fc) were used as the signal amplifiers. The NHMN/Au nanomaterials increased the loading of primary antibody and improved the electron transport rate, while Au carried immobilized secondary antibodies and Fc derivative. Using Fc-SH as the response probe, the experiments showed an increased peak current after the specific recognition of Ab(1)-CEA-Ab(2), indicating the successful development of a novel sandwich-type CEA immunosensor. The proposed method was applied to detect CEA in human serum with satisfactory results, demonstrating its significant clinical applications.