Improved porous silicon microarray based prostate specific antigen immunoassay by optimized surface density of the capture antibody

•We develop porous silicon based microarray for PSA detection in human serum.•We optimize density of capturing antibody for improving sandwich immunoassay of PSA.•Porous silicon has high capacity of capturing of antibody.•The microarray offers 800 fg mL−1 (0.6 amol) of PSA in human serum.•It also has broad detection dynamic ranges (800 fg mL−1 to 80 ng mL−1).

Enriching the surface density of immobilized capture antibodies enhances the detection signal of antibody sandwich microarrays. In this study, we improved the detection sensitivity of our previously developed P-Si (porous silicon) antibody microarray by optimizing concentrations of the capturing antibody. We investigated immunoassays using a P-Si microarray at three different capture antibody (PSA – prostate specific antigen) concentrations, analyzing the influence of the antibody density on the assay detection sensitivity. The LOD (limit of detection) for PSA was 2.5 ng mL−1, 80 pg mL−1, and 800 fg mL−1 when arraying the PSA antibody, H117 at the concentration 15 μg mL−1, 35 μg mL−1, and 154 μg mL−1, respectively. We further investigated PSA spiked into human female serum in the range of 800 fg mL−1 to 500 ng mL−1. The microarray showed a LOD of 800 fg mL−1 and a dynamic range of 800 fg mL−1 to 80 ng mL−1 in serum spiked samples.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide