Ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensor based on MXene quantum dots for prostate cancer biomarker detection

Area of Science:

• Nanotechnology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Prostate cancer is a leading cause of male mortality worldwide.
• Sensitive and cost-effective diagnostic tools for prostate cancer are urgently needed.
• Current diagnostic methods require improvement in sensitivity and specificity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel electrochemical immunosensor for highly sensitive prostate-specific antigen (PSA) detection.
• To utilize polyaniline-loaded MXene quantum dots and gold nanoparticles (PANI@Ti3C2 MXene Quantum dots-Au NPs) for enhanced sensing performance.
• To validate the clinical applicability of the developed immunosensor for early prostate cancer diagnosis.

Main Methods:

• Construction of an electrochemical immunosensor using PANI@Ti3C2 MXene Quantum dots-Au NPs.
• Employing a sandwich immunoassay strategy with MXene quantum dots for PSA detection.
• Electrochemical characterization using cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV).

Main Results:

• The immunosensor achieved a wide linear detection range of 2 fg mL−1 to 2 pg mL−1.
• A remarkably low detection limit of 0.61 fg mL−1 for PSA was obtained.
• The sensor demonstrated high specificity, reproducibility, and analytical stability in human serum samples.

Conclusions:

• The developed MXene quantum dot-based immunosensor provides a highly sensitive and selective platform for PSA detection.
• This technology shows significant potential for early prostate cancer diagnosis.
• MXene quantum dots represent a promising material for advanced biosensing applications.