Surface Plasmon Coupling Electrochemiluminescence Immunosensor Based on Polymer Dots and AuNPs for Ultrasensitive Detection of Pancreatic Cancer Exosomes

Anal Chem. 2022 Jan 18;94(2):837-846. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c03535. Epub 2021 Dec 16.

Abstract

Polymer dots (Pdots) have become attractive electrochemiluminescence (ECL) luminophores due to their facile synthesis, easy modification, and stable electrochemical and optical properties. However, their ECL efficiency is not high enough for practical applications. In this work, we proposed an ECL immunosensor based on localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) between AuNPs and Pdots for the determination of pancreatic cancer exosomes. Based on the finite-difference time-domain simulations and the band energy of Pdots and AuNPs, we proposed the possible LSPR mechanism. The hot electrons of plasmonic AuNPs were photoexcited to surface plasmon states by ECL emission of Pdots, and then the excited hot electrons were transferred to the conduction band of Pdots, which significantly improved the ECL efficiency of Pdots. The ECL immunosensor displayed a wide calibration range of 1.0 × 103 to 1.0 × 106 particles/mL with a detection limit of 400 particles/mL. Cancer-related protein profiling revealed high selectivity toward different expressions of exosomal surface proteins from PANC-01, HeLa, MCF-7, and HPDE6-C7 cell lines. The proposed ECL system exhibits a promising prospect for protein biomarker profiling and early cancer-related diagnosis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biosensing Techniques*
  • Electrochemical Techniques / methods
  • Exosomes*
  • Gold
  • Humans
  • Immunoassay
  • Limit of Detection
  • Luminescent Measurements
  • Metal Nanoparticles*
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms* / diagnosis
  • Polymers / chemistry
  • Quantum Dots* / chemistry

Substances

  • Polymers
  • Gold