Magnetic immunoassay coupled with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for simultaneous quantification of alpha-fetoprotein and carcinoembryonic antigen in human serum

•4-Mercaptophenylboronic acid functionalized magnetic beads were prepared and characterized.•ICP-MS based magnetic immunoassay approach was developed for quantification of glycoproteins.•AFP and CEA were quantified simultaneously with Au and Ag NPs as element tags.•The developed method exhibited good selectivity and sensitivity for target glycoproteins.

The absolute quantification of glycoproteins in complex biological samples is a challenge and of great significance. Herein, 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid functionalized magnetic beads were prepared to selectively capture glycoproteins, while antibody conjugated gold and silver nanoparticles were synthesized as element tags to label two different glycoproteins. Based on that, a new approach of magnetic immunoassay-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was established for simultaneous quantitative analysis of glycoproteins. Taking biomarkers of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) as two model glycoproteins, experimental parameters involved in the immunoassay procedure were carefully optimized and analytical performance of the proposed method was evaluated. The limits of detection (LODs) for AFP and CEA were 0.086 μg L− 1 and 0.054 μg L− 1 with the relative standard deviations (RSDs, n = 7, c = 5 μg L− 1) of 6.5% and 6.2% for AFP and CEA, respectively. Linear range for both AFP and CEA was 0.2–50 μg L− 1. To validate the applicability of the proposed method, human serum samples were analyzed, and the obtained results were in good agreement with that obtained by the clinical chemiluminescence immunoassay. The developed method exhibited good selectivity and sensitivity for the simultaneous determination of AFP and CEA, and extended the applicability of metal nanoparticle tags based on ICP-MS methodology in multiple glycoprotein quantifications.