High-performance immunosensor for urine albumin using hybrid architectures of ZnO nanowire/carbon nanotube.

In this work, the authors reported the hybrid architecture of carbon nanotube (CNT)-zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire as a multi-functional probe in amperometric immunosensor for the detection of urine albumin. Low-cost substrate such as glass is possible because of novel low-temperature growth process of CNT/ZnO nanowires as a multi-function electrode in this sensor. Based on Schottky like behaviour this structure exhibit excellent high current density to achieve higher performance. Measurement of urine albumin is a new way for early detection of diabetic and also low concentration of it in culture media is also considered in order to verify the conversion of stem cells to liver cells. Human albumin serum antibody is used as a selective and sensitive part. The amperometric performance of immunosensor is studied and showed excellent performance for detection of albumin in urine samples. Very high linear range (from 3.3 ng/µl to 3.3 mg/µl) with a correlation coefficient of 0.825 and low detection limit (3.3 ng/µl or 4.96 × 10-8 mol l-1) are the main characteristics of this sensor. Due to the high dynamic range and sensitivity, this sensor was also used in medical diagnosis and biomedical applications.

A novel approach for osteocalcin detection by competitive ELISA using porous silicon as a substrate.

In this study, porous silicon (PSi) was utilized instead of prevalent polystyrene platforms, and its capability in biomolecule screening was examined. Here, two types of porous structure, macroporous silicon (Macro-PSi) and mesoporous silicon (Meso-PSi), were produced on silicon wafers by electrochemical etching using different electrolytes. Moreover, both kinds of fresh and oxidized PSi samples were investigated. Next, osteocalcin as a biomarker of the bone formation process was used as a model biomarker, and the colorimetric detection was performed by competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Both Macro-PSi and Meso-PSi substrates in the oxidized state, specifically the Meso-porous structure, were reported to have higher surface area to volume ratio, more capacitance of surface-antigen interaction, and more ability to capture antigen in comparison with the prevalent platforms. Moreover, the optical density signal of osteocalcin detected by the ELISA technique was notably higher than the common platforms. Based on the findings of this study, PSi can potentially be used in the ELISA to achieve better results and consequently more sensitivity. A further asset of incorporating such a nanometer structure in the ELISA technique is that the system response to analyte concentration could be maintained by consuming lower monoclonal antibody (or antigen) and consequently reduces the cost of the experiment.