Open AccessLabel-free detection of breast cancer cells using a functionalized tilted fiber grating
Author(s) -
Xiaoyong Chen,
Pin Xu,
WenWei Lin,
Jin Jang,
Haiyan Qu,
Xuehao Hu,
Jinghua Sun,
Yukun Cui
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.454645
Subject(s) - biosensor , detection limit , materials science , breast cancer , cancer cell , circulating tumor cell , biomedical engineering , fiber bragg grating , cancer , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , medicine , chemistry , chromatography , metastasis , wavelength
The detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) still faces a huge challenge partially because of low abundance of CTCs (1-10 cells/mL). In this work, a plasmonic titled fiber Bragg grating biosensor is proposed for detection of breast cancer cells. The biosensor is made by an 18° TFBG with a 50 nm-thick gold nanofilm coating over the surface of the fiber, further immobilized with a specific antibody against GPR30, which is a membrane receptor expressed in many breast cancers, serving as bait. In vitro tests have confirmed that the proposed biosensor can detect breast cancer cells in concentration of 5 cells/mL within 20 minutes and has good linearity in the range of 5-1000 cells/mL, which has met the requirement of CTC detection in real conditions. Furthermore, theoretical analysis based on the experimental results shows that the limit of detection can even reach single-cell level. Our proposed biosensor has a simple structure, is easy to manufacture, is of small size, and has a good performance, making it a good choice for real-time, label-free, and milliliter-volume detection of cancer cells in future.