title: Plasmonic ELISA based on the controlled growth of silver nanoparticles.
abstract: Herein, we demonstrate a plasmonic ELISA based on the alkaline phosphatase (ALP)-mediated growth of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) for the sensitive, rapid, and naked-eye detection of cancer biomarkers in clinical serum samples. This approach was used to measure the low-abundance alpha fetal protein (AFP) in clinical sera, which demonstrates its great capability in the differentiation of cancers and evaluation of therapeutic responses. Impressively, the readout of the plasmonic assay depends on the rapid formation of Ag colloidal solutions with various degrees of yellow color, which can be distinguished by the naked eye, without the need for sophisticated platforms. The limit of detection of the plasmonic ELISA for alpha fetal protein (AFP) can be as low as 0.23 ng mL-1, which is approximately 10 folds lower than that of conventional ELISA. This plasmonic ELISA opens a new avenue for the early detection of cancers and monitoring of cancer reoccurrence especially in resource-poor regions where convenient diagnostic tools are highly desirable.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Research Center for Analytical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Biosensing, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China. yijunli@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhihong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xuan
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Research Center for Analytical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Biosensing, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China. yijunli@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Mingmin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410013, China. rongpengfei66@163.com.
authors.forename: Pengfei
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410013, China. rongpengfei66@163.com.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Research Center for Analytical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Biosensing, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China. yijunli@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yijun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Chemistry, Research Center for Analytical Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Biosensing, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China. yijunli@nankai.edu.cn and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin), Tianjin 300071, China.
authors.forename: Dingbin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu