title: Plasmonic sensors for the competitive detection of testosterone.
abstract: The ability to detect small molecules in a rapid and sensitive manner is of great importance in the field of clinical chemistry, and the advancement of novel biosensors is key to realising point-of-care analysis for essential targets. Testosterone is an example of such a small molecule, the detection of which is important in both clinical analysis, and in the sporting industry to prevent doping. As such, a portable, rapid and sensitive test for testosterone would be of great use across a variety of analytical fields. Here we report on a novel method of testosterone analysis, based on a competitive inhibition assay utilising functionalized gold nanoparticles. Two sensing platforms are directly compared for the detection of testosterone based on both classical SPR and LSPR. We provide an in-depth discussion on the optimum surface chemistries needed to create a stable detection conjugate before successfully detecting testosterone using our newly developed portable 4-channel SPR instrument. We provide the first detailed study into the comparison of SPR and LSPR for the analysis of a small molecule, and provide a simple and effective method of testosterone detection that could potentially be extended to a variety of different analytes.
authors.affiliation: Departement de chimie, Université de Montréal, CP 6128 Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC, CanadaH3C 3J7. jf.masson@umontreal.ca.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yockell-Lelièvre
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bukar
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: McKeating
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arnaud
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cosin
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dupret-Carruel
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mougin
authors.forename: J-F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Masson
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013739:Testosterone / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D013739:Testosterone; D006046:Gold