Graphene oxide layer decorated gold nanoparticles based immunosensor for the detection of prostate cancer risk factor

In this work, we report a novel electrochemical immunosensor based on gold nanoparticles deposited on the surface of graphene oxide layers and was used for immobilization of monoclonal anti-PSA antibody via EDC/NHS coupling method to detect prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a valuable biomarker for early detection of prostate cancer. To confirm the functionality of the antibody, we performed immunofluorescence staining using human prostate adenocarcinoma cells, LNCaP. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), cyclic voltammetry, and other electrochemical techniques were used to characterize the resulting electrode surface. Unlike the previous research, this novel immunosensor functions very well with a low detection limit of 0.24 fgmL−1 at signal to noise ratio of 3; furthermore, it exhibits a significantly increased electron transfer and high sensitivity of 5.4 μA fgmL−1 with regression coefficient (R2 = 0.99) toward PSA. The immunosensor was verified for selective and accurate detection of PSA in human serum with recovery of 97.67%. Overall, data suggested that our developed biosensor holds great promise as a useful alternative diagnostic tool for the detection of different cancer biomarkers, in particular PSA present in biological samples.