Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

Abstract

A simple method is reported to fabricate gold arrays featuring microwells surrounding 8-electrodes from gold compact discs (CDs) for less than $0.2 per chip. Integration of these disposable gold CD array chips with microfluidics provided inexpensive immunoarrays that were used to measure a cancer biomarker protein quickly at high sensitivity. The gold CD sensor arrays were fabricated using thermal transfer of laserjet toner from a computer-printed pattern followed by selective chemical etching. Sensor elements had an electrochemically addressable surface area of 0.42 mm2 with RSD <2%. For a proof-of-concept application, the arrays were integrated into a simple microfluidic device for electrochemical detection of cancer biomarker interleukin-6 (IL-6) in diluted serum. Capture antibodies of IL-6 were chemically linked onto the electrode arrays and a sandwich immunoassay protocol was developed. A biotinylated detection antibody with polymerized horseradish peroxidase labels was used for signal amplification. The detection limit of IL-6 in diluted serum was remarkably low at 10 fg mL −1 (385 aM) with a linear response with log of IL-6 concentration from 10 to 1300 fg mL −1. These easily fabricated, ultrasensitive, microfluidic immunosensors should be readily adapted for sensitive detection of multiple biomarkers for cancer diagnostics.

Comments

Lab Chip. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 July 21. Published in final edited form as: Lab Chip. 2012 January 21; 12(2): 281–286. Published online 2011 November 24. doi: 10.1039/c1lc20833k PMCID: PMC3328855 NIHMSID: NIHMS365206

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