Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 17, 2025
Surface-enhanced Resonance Raman Scattering Nanoprobe Ratiometry for Detecting Microscopic Ovarian Cancer via Folate Receptor Targeting
Published on: March 25, 2019
Sensitive and Specific Detection of Carcinoembryonic Antigens Using Toroidal Metamaterial Biosensors Integrated with
Qiang Niu1, Liling Fu1, Yunxiang Zhong1
1School of Science, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China.
Abstract:
Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a biomarker that is highly expressed in cancer patients. Label-free, highly sensitive, and specific detection of CEA biomarkers can therefore greatly aid in the early detection and screening of cancer. This study presents a toroidal metamaterial biosensor integrated with functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) that demonstrated highly sensitive and specific detection of CEA using terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy. In the biosensor, a closed-loop magnetic field formed an electrical confinement, resulting in a high sensitivity (287.8 GHz/RIU) and an ultrahigh quality factor (15.04). In addition, the integrated AuNPs with high refractive indices significantly enhanced the sensing performance of the biosensor. To explore the quantitative and qualitative detection of CEA, CEA biomarkers with various concentrations and four types of proteins were measured by the designed biosensor, achieving a limit of detection of 0.17 ng and high specificity. Even more significant, the proposed AuNP-integrated THz toroidal metamaterial biosensor demonstrates exceptional potential for use in technologies for cancer diagnosis and monitoring.
