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Updated: Jun 20, 2025
Monitoring Protein Adsorption with Solid-state Nanopores
Published on: December 2, 2011
Immunological assay using a solid-state pore with a low limit of detection
Hiroyasu Takei1, Tomoko Nakada2, Lat Wai Leong2
1Aipore Inc., 26-1 Sakuragaokacho, Shibuya, Tokyo, 150-8512, Japan.
Insights
This study presents a novel method combining immunoreactions and solid-state pores for highly sensitive detection of tumor markers. This breakthrough enables rapid, quantitative point-of-care testing with a significantly lower detection limit.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Nanotechnology
- Immunology
Background:
- Immune reactions are crucial for disease detection, relying on antigen-antibody recognition.
- Solid-state pores offer single-molecule detection by varying pore diameter.
- Combining these technologies promises sensitive and specific disease testing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a quantitative analysis method using solid-state pores for disease detection.
- To achieve a low limit of detection for tumor markers via hybrid technology.
- To create rapid, sensitive, and specific immunoassay tests.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a hybrid approach combining immunoreactions with solid-state pore technology.
- Employed prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and anti-PSA antibody-modified beads.
- Demonstrated quantitative analysis of bead mixtures and PSA detection.
Main Results:
- Achieved quantitative analysis of bead mixtures with an error rate up to 4.7%.
- Reached a detection limit of 24.9 fM for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in 30 minutes.
- Demonstrated a lower limit of detection and higher throughput compared to existing immunoassays.
Conclusions:
- The hybrid solid-state pore and immunoreaction method enables sensitive tumor marker detection.
- This technology facilitates the development of rapid, easy-to-use point-of-care tests.
- The method offers improved sensitivity and throughput for immunoassay applications.
Abstract:
Emerging infectious diseases, cancer, and other diseases are quickly tested mainly via immune reactions based on specific molecular recognition between antigens and antibodies. By changing the diameter of solid-state pores, biomolecules of various sizes can be rapidly detected at the single-molecule level. The combination of immunoreactions and solid-state pores paves the way for an efficient testing method with high specificity and sensitivity. The challenge in developing this method is achieving quantitative analysis using solid-state pores. Here, we demonstrate a method with a low limit of detection for testing tumor markers using a combination of immunoreactions and solid-state pore technology. Quantitative analysis of the mixing ratio of two and three beads with different diameters was achieved with an error rate of up to 4.7%. The hybrid solid-state pore and immunoreaction methods with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and anti-PSA antibody-modified beads achieved a detection limit of 24.9 fM PSA in 30 min. The hybrid solid-state pore and immunoreaction enabled the rapid development of easy-to-use tests with lower limit of detection and greater throughput than commercially available immunoassay for point-of-care testing.
