Lysozymes in human urine have crucial clinical significance as an indicator of renal tubular and glomerular diseases. Most lysozyme detection methods rely on the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), which is usually a tedious procedure. Meanwhile, aptamer sensors and fluorescence-based techniques for lysozyme detection have emerged in recent studies. However, these methods are time-consuming and highly complex in operation, and some even require exorbitant reagents and instruments, which restricts real-time clinical monitoring as diagnostic approaches. Therefore, a rapid and low-cost lysozyme detection method with facile preparation is still in demand for modern precision medicine. Herein, we propose a magnetoelastic (ME) immunosensor for lysozyme detection by detecting changes in resonance frequency under a magnetostrictive effect. The detection system is composed of a magnetoelastic chip with an immobilized lysozyme antibody, a solenoid coil, and a vector network analyzer. Since the ME sensor is ultrasensitive to mass change, the frequency offset caused by mass change can be utilized to detect the content of lysozyme. The immunosensor is evaluated to possess superior sensitivity of 138 Hz/μg mL-1 in terms of the resonance frequency shift (RFS). In addition, our sensor displays an outstanding performance in specificity experiments and shows a relatively lower detection limit (1.26 ng/mL) than other conventional lysozyme detection methods (such as ELISA, chemiluminescence assay, fluorescence, and aptamer biosensors).
Keywords: lysozyme; magnetoelastic immunosensor; resonance frequency shift; specific detection; surface functionalization.