Highly sensitive detection of free testosterone assisted by magnetic nanobeads and gap-enhanced SERS nanotags

Bing Liu, Shiya Zheng, Hanyu Tang, Qian Liu, Haitao Li, Bingbing Gao, Xiangwei Zhao, Fei Sun

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

The quantitative determination of trace free testosterone (FT) is of great significance for the diagnosis of androgen-related endocrine diseases. Herein, a fascinating detection protocol was developed for highly sensitive FT analysis through a competitive immunoassay mechanism, which was composed of magnetic nanobeads (MNBs) and gap-enhanced surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanotags. With the MNBs as detection carriers, trace FT could be enriched by simple magnetic separation. The SERS nanotag constructed with silver-gold core-shell nanoparticle was acted as quantitative label, and Raman indicators were located at the interface between silver core and gold shell. It is demonstrated that the as-proposed protocol achieves high detection sensitivity for FT of 12.11 fg mL-1, and wider linear dynamic detection range (LDR) in the concentration of 100 fg mL-1 to 100 ng mL-1 with R2 value of 0.979, which is due to the enhanced Raman signal of the gap-enhanced SERS nanotag and the high surface-to-volume ratio of the MNB, respectively. Taking advantages of such sensitivity and accuracy approach, the as-developed powerful strategy presents potential applications for rapid disease diagnosis through analyzing trace levels of FT, and can also provide guidance for the exploitation of analysis project of other analytes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number112460
JournalColloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces
Volume214
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2022

Keywords

  • Free testosterone
  • Gap-enhanced SERS nanotag
  • High sensitivity
  • Linear dynamic detection range
  • Magnetic nanobead

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