Development Toward a Triple-Marker Biosensor for Diagnosing Cardiovascular Disease

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Cardiovascular Medicine

Background:

• Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading global cause of mortality, necessitating accurate and efficient diagnostic methods.
• Current assays for cardiac biomarkers are often complex and time-consuming, hindering timely diagnosis and management.
• There is a critical need for rapid, sensitive, and user-friendly biosensors for monitoring multiple cardiac biomarkers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and report rapid, label-free biosensor prototypes for three FDA-approved cardiac biomarkers: BNP, cTnI, and CRP.
• To demonstrate the capability of these biosensors for sensitive, multi-marker detection using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS).
• To evaluate the clinical relevance of the developed biosensors, particularly for BNP detection in blood samples.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of biosensors by immobilizing antibodies for BNP, cTnI, and CRP onto gold working electrodes.
• Utilized electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) for label-free detection and quantification of biomarkers.
• Determined the optimal frequency (OF) for each biomarker to enable sensitive and specific detection.

Main Results:

• Successfully identified optimal frequencies (OFs) for BNP (1.74 Hz), cTnI (37.56 Hz), and CRP (253.9 Hz).
• Demonstrated femto-molar sensitivity using EIS, enabling label-free detection of multiple biomarkers.
• The BNP biosensor achieved a clinically relevant detection limit of 100 pg/mL when tested in blood samples.

Conclusions:

• Developed rapid, label-free biosensor prototypes for key cardiac biomarkers (BNP, cTnI, CRP).
• EIS proves to be a sensitive technique for multi-marker detection when optimal frequencies are identified.
• These biosensors hold significant potential for simplifying and improving cardiovascular disease diagnostics.