Flow injection amperometric sandwich-type aptasensor for the determination of human leukemic lymphoblast cancer cells using MWCNTs-Pdnano/PTCA/aptamer as labeled aptamer for the signal amplification

•This is the first report of the sandwitch-type electrochemical aptasensor for the determination of CCRF-CEM cancer cells.•The MWCNT-Pdnano nanocomposites were used as a labeled catalytic aptamer.•A “signal-on” aptasensor has been reported.•The amperometric method was used for the determination of CCRF-CEM cancer cells.•The determination of CCRF-CEM cancer cells up to 5 × 105 cells mL−1 with a detection limit 8 cells mL−1, respectively.

In this research, we demonstrated a flow injection amperometric sandwich-type aptasensor for the determination of human leukemic lymphoblasts (CCRF-CEM) based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) decorated with gold nanoparticles (PEDOT-Aunano) as a nano platform to immobilize thiolated sgc8c aptamer and multiwall carbon nanotubes decorated with palladium nanoparticles/3,4,9,10-perylene tetracarboxylic acid (MWCNTs-Pdnano/PTCA) to fabricate catalytic labeled aptamer. In the proposed sensing strategy, the CCRF-CEM cancer cells were sandwiched between immobilized sgc8c aptamer on PEDOT-Aunano modified surface electrode and catalytic labeled sgc8c aptamer (MWCNTs-Pdnano/PTCA/aptamer). After that, the concentration of CCRF-CEM cancer cells was determined in presence of 0.1 mM hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an electroactive component. The attached MWCNTs-Pdnano nanocomposites to CCRF-CEM cancer cells amplified the electrocatalytic reduction of H2O2 and improved the sensitivity of the sensor to CCRF-CEM cancer cells. The MWCNT-Pdnano nanocomposite was characterized with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX). The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) were used to confirm the stepwise changes in the electrochemical surface properties of the electrode. The proposed sandwich-type electrochemical aptasensor exhibited an excellent analytical performance for the detection of CCRF-CEM cancer cells ranging from 1.0 × 101 to 5.0 × 105 cells mL−1. The limit of detection was 8 cells mL−1. The proposed aptasensor showed high selectivity toward CCRF-CEM cancer cells. The proposed aptasensor was also applied to the determination of CCRF-CEM cancer cells in human serum samples.

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