Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 10, 2026
Fabricating a UV-Vis and Raman Spectroscopy Immunoassay Platform
Published on: November 10, 2016
Development of quartz-crystal-microbalance-based immunosensor array for clinical immunophenotyping of acute leukemias
Hui Zeng1, Hua Wang, Fangping Chen
1Hematology Department, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410008, China.
Insights
A new piezoelectric immunosensor array accurately identifies acute leukemias by immobilizing antibodies on quartz crystal microbalances. This cost-effective, sensitive method shows clinical potential for immunophenotyping leukocytes.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Analytical Chemistry
- Hematology
Background:
- Accurate immunophenotyping of acute leukemias is crucial for diagnosis and treatment.
- Existing methods can be time-consuming or require specialized equipment.
- There is a need for rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective diagnostic tools.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate an integrated piezoelectric immunosensor array for acute leukemia immunophenotyping.
- To assess the feasibility and clinical suitability of the developed immunosensor array.
- To compare the performance of the immunosensor array with established methods like fluoroimmunoassay.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensors with n-butylamine, nanogold, and protein A for antibody immobilization.
- Construction of a 2x2 immunosensor array with immobilized leukemic lineage-associated monoclonal antibodies.
- Optimization of detection conditions including antibody immobilization, pH, reaction time, and sample dilution.
- Validation using Jurkat cells and comparison with immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry.
- Clinical evaluation on 96 acute leukemia patients and 24 normal subjects, comparing with fluoroimmunoassay.
Main Results:
- The immunosensor array successfully identified leukemia samples within 5 minutes.
- Dynamic monitoring of immunoreaction processes was demonstrated.
- Immunophenotyping of patient samples achieved an 88.93% accuracy rate across 768 data groups.
- No significant statistical difference was found between the immunosensor method and fluoroimmunoassay (chi2 = 3.4, p > 0.05).
- The array exhibited high sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility, ease of use, and low cost.
Conclusions:
- The developed piezoelectric immunosensor array is a sensitive, specific, and reproducible tool for acute leukemia immunophenotyping.
- The method is rapid, cost-effective, and demonstrates clinical suitability for quantifying leukocytes and diagnosing acute leukemias.
- This technology offers a promising alternative for routine clinical diagnostics.
Abstract:
An integrated piezoelectric immunosensor array has been developed to immunophenotype acute leukemias in clinic. Each quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) was fabricated with plasma-polymerized film of n-butylamine, nanogold particles, and protein A (PA) to be used to immobilize antibodies in orientation. Leukemic lineage-associated monoclonal antibodies were separately immobilized onto the nanogold-PA-modified surface of the crystals, which were constructed by a 2 x 2 type of probes forming a QCM-based immunosensor array. The main detection conditions were investigated, including the immobilization amount of antibodies, pH, immunoreaction time, sample dilution ratio, etc. The immunophenotyping feasibility of the new technique was investigated through simultaneously analyzing Jurkat cells by the immunosensor array method, immunohistochemistry, and flow cytometry. It was found that the developed technique could readily identify leukemia samples in 5 min and might monitor dynamically the immunoreaction processes. Moreover, comparison studies were carried out for CD antigens expressed on the nucleated cells isolated from 96 acute leukemic patients and 24 normal subjects using the QCM-based immunosensor method and the fluoroimmunoassay. Results obtained by immunophenotyping patients' samples with the immunosensor-based method achieved the rate of 88.93% in 768 groups of numerical data, where no significant statistical difference was observed between the two methods when checked by chi2 analysis (chi2 = 3.4, p > 0.05). This new immunosensor array showed the merits of high sensitivity, high specificity, good reproducibility, easy operation, and low cost. The results of specimen evaluation indicated that it might be clinically suitable for quantifying human differentiated leukocytes and immunophenotyping of acute leukemias.
