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Ultra-sensitive detection of tumor necrosis factor alpha based on silver-coated gold core shell and magnetically separated recognition of SERS aptamer sensors

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Abstract

A highly sensitive tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) detection method based on a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) magnetic patch sensor is reported. Magnetic beads (MNPs) and core shells were used as the capture matrix and signaling probe, respectively. For this purpose, antibodies were immobilized on the surface of magnetic beads, and then Au@4-MBN@Ag core–shell structures coupled with aptamers and TNF-α antigen were added sequentially to form a sandwich immune complex. Quantitative analysis was performed by monitoring changes in the characteristic SERS signal intensity of the Raman reporter molecule 4-MBN. The results showed that the limit of detection (LOD) of the proposed method was 4.37 × 10−15 mg·mL−1 with good linearity (R2 = 0.9918) over the concentration range 10−12 to 10−5 mg·mL−1. Excellent assay accuracy was also demonstrated, with recoveries in the range 102% to 114%. Since all reactions occur in solution and are separated by magnetic adsorption of magnetic beads, this SERS-based immunoassay technique solves the kinetic problems of limited diffusion and difficult separation on solid substrates. The method is therefore expected to be a good clinical tool for the diagnosis of the inflammatory biomarker THF-α and in vivo inflammation screening.

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Funding

We are very grateful to the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Project for University Students in Fujian Province (cxxl-2022213), Guiding Project No. 2020Y0019, supported by Fujian Provincial Department of Science and Technology, Industry-University Cooperation Project of Fujian Provincial Department of Science and Technology (2020N5006), Fushimei Agricultural and Rural Maker Space (Minke Xing (2019) No. 2), and Program for Innovative Research Team in Science and Technology in Fujian Province University, Fujian Provincial Natural Science Foundation (2023J01502).

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  1. Qingling Nie and Bohan Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Oriented Chemical Engineer, Fujian Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials, Engineering Research Center of Industrial Biocatalysis, Fujian Province Higher Education Institutes, Fujian Normal University, Fuzhou, 350007, Fujian, China

    Qingling Nie, Bohan Zhang, Rong Li, Yixuan Yang, Junjie Ren, Liting Qiu, Yudong Lu, Lanjin Zhu, Huiying Shen, Yunzhen Liu & Ruiyun You

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  1. Qingling Nie
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Contributions

Q.N.: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, and writing, original draft. B.Z.: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, investigation, and data curation. R.L.: collected experimental samples and performed experiments and formal analysis. Y.Y.: formal analysis and data curation. J.R.: validation and formal analysis. L.Q.: analyzed the experimental data. Y.L.: conceptualization, funding acquisition, project administration, and supervision. L.Z.: supervision, funding acquisition, and resources. H.S.: funding acquisition, project administration, and resources. Y.L.: conceptualization, funding acquisition, project administration, supervision, and writing, review and editing. R.Y.: conceptualization, methodology, funding acquisition, supervision, and writing, review and editing.

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Correspondence to Yunzhen Liu or Ruiyun You.

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Nie, Q., Zhang, B., Li, R. et al. Ultra-sensitive detection of tumor necrosis factor alpha based on silver-coated gold core shell and magnetically separated recognition of SERS aptamer sensors. Microchim Acta 191, 41 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-023-06049-7

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