title: Dissolution-enhanced luminescent bioassay based on inorganic lanthanide nanoparticles.
abstract: Conventional dissociation-enhanced lanthanide fluoroimmunoassays (DELFIA) using molecular probes suffer from a low labeling ratio of lanthanide ions (Ln(3+) ) per biomolecule. Herein, we develop a unique bioassay based on the dissolution-enhanced luminescence of inorganic lanthanide nanoparticles (NPs). As a result of the highly concentrated Ln(3+)  ions in a single Ln(3+)  NP, an extremely high Ln(3+)  labeling ratio can be achieved, which amplifies significantly the luminescence signal and thus improves the detection sensitivity compared to DELFIA. Utilizing sub-10 nm NaEuF4  NPs as dissolution-enhanced luminescent nanoprobes, we demonstrate the successful in vitro detection of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA, an important tumor marker) in human serum samples with a record-low detection limit of 0.1 pg mL(-1) (0.5 fM). This value is an improvement of approximately 3 orders of magnitude relative to that of DELFIA. The dissolution-enhanced luminescent bioassay shows great promise in versatile bioapplications, such as ultrasensitive and multiplexed in vitro detection of disease markers in clinical diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials Chemistry and Physics and Key Laboratory of Design and Assembly of Functional Nanostructures, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002 (China); State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry and Danish-Chinese Centre for Proteases and Cancer, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002 (China).
authors.forename: Shanyong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Zhuo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Datao
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.forename: Yongsheng
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: En
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Renfu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Haomiao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Mingdong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xueyuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D028581:Lanthanoid Series Elements / Q000737:chemistry*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D049449:Luminescence; D049408:Luminescent Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D008163:Luminescent Measurements / Q000379:methods*; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood; D012995:Solubility
chemical_list: D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; D028581:Lanthanoid Series Elements; D049408:Luminescent Agents
keywords: bioassays; lanthanides; luminescence; nanoparticles; tumor markers