Rapid near-patient impedimetric sensing platform for prostate cancer diagnosis

Dehghani, P., Karthikeyan, V. , Tajabadi, A., Assi, D. S., Catchpole, A., Wadsworth, J., Leung, H. Y. and Roy, V. A.L. (2024) Rapid near-patient impedimetric sensing platform for prostate cancer diagnosis. ACS Omega, (doi: 10.1021/acsomega.4c00843) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

With the global escalation of concerns surrounding prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis, reliance on the serologic prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test remains the primary approach. However, the imperative for early PCa diagnosis necessitates more effective, accurate, and rapid diagnostic point-of-care (POC) devices to enhance the result reliability and minimize disease-related complications. Among POC approaches, electrochemical biosensors, known for their amenability and miniaturization capabilities, have emerged as promising candidates. In this study, we developed an impedimetric sensing platform to detect urinary zinc (UZn) in both artificial and clinical urine samples. Our approach lies in integrating label-free impedimetric sensing and the introduction of porosity through surface modification techniques. Leveraging a cellulose acetate/reduced graphene oxide composite, our sensor’s recognition layer is engineered to exhibit enhanced porosity, critical for improving the sensitivity, capture, and interaction with UZn. The sensitivity is further amplified by incorporating zincon as an external dopant, establishing highly effective recognition sites. Our sensor demonstrates a limit of detection of 7.33 ng/mL in the 0.1–1000 ng/mL dynamic range, which aligns with the reference benchmark samples from clinical biochemistry. Our sensor results are comparable with the results of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) where a notable correlation of 0.991 is achieved. To validate our sensor in a real-life scenario, tests were performed on human urine samples from patients being investigated for prostate cancer. Testing clinical urine samples using our sensing platform and ICP-MS produced highly comparable results. A linear correlation with R2 = 0.964 with no significant difference between two groups (p-value = 0.936) was found, thus confirming the reliability of our sensing platform.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Assi, Dani and Tajabadi, Ataollah and Dehghani, Miss Parisa and Vellaisamy, Professor Roy and Leung, Professor Hing and Karthikeyan, Dr Vaithinathan

Creator Roles

Dehghani, P.: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review and editing
Tajabadi, A.: Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – review and editing
Karthikeyan, V.: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing – review and editing
Leung, H.: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review and editing
Vellaisamy, R.: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Dehghani, P., Karthikeyan, V., Tajabadi, A., Assi, D. S., Catchpole, A., Wadsworth, J., Leung, H. Y., and Roy, V. A.L.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Cancer Sciences; College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering
• Journal Name: ACS Omega
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• ISSN: 2470-1343
• ISSN (Online): 2470-1343
• Published Online: 15 March 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright: © 2024 The Authors
• First Published: First published in ACS Omega 2024
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence