SPR detection of cardiac troponin T for acute myocardial infarction

Abstract

A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor developed for the rapid, sensitive and specific detection of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) in serum samples is reported in this work. An extensive optimisation of assay parameters was conducted to achieve optimal detection strategy. Both direct and sandwich immunoassay formats were investigated and optimised. The response obtained was enhanced further by the use of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) conjugated to the anti-cTnT detection antibody. A regeneration method was developed to enable the reuse of the SPR sensor for multiple sample application. The SPR immunosensor showed good reproducibility for cTnT detection in the concentration range of 25-1000 ng mL(-1) and 5-400 ng mL(-1) for the direct and sandwich assays in buffer, respectively. The linear regression analysis was performed and R(2) value was found as 0.99 for both assays. In order to optimise the sensor for serum analysis, nonspecific binding of serum proteins was reduced through the use of additives in the dilution buffer. To achieve greater sensitivity, the performance of the cTnT immunosensor sandwich assay in human serum was evaluated using non-modified and AuNP modified detector antibodies. A detection limit (LOD) for the immunosensor in 50% serum was assessed as 5 ng mL(-1) cTnT for the standard sandwich assay and 0.5 ng mL(-1) cTnT when using AuNP conjugated detector antibodies with a linear dynamic range of 0.5-40 ng mL(-1). The dissociation constant was found as 3.28 × 10(-9) M using Langmuir binding model which indicates high affinity between cTnT and its antibody. The proposed SPR immunosensor has a promising potential to be developed for point-of-care testing for the early diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). This method can also be used for the rapid detection of biomarkers in central nervous system diseases.

Keywords: Acute myocardial infarction; Cardiac troponin T; Early diagnosis; Immunosensor; SPR.