Label-free detection of liver cancer cells by aptamer-based microcantilever biosensor

Liver cancer is one of the most common and highly malignant cancers in the world. There are no effective therapeutic options if an early liver cancer diagnosis is not achieved. In this work, detection of HepG2 cells by label-free microcantilever array aptasensor was developed. The sensing microcantilevers were functionalized by HepG2 cells-specific aptamers. Meanwhile, to eliminate the interferences induced by the environment, the reference microcantilevers were modified with 6-mercapto-1-hexanol self-assembled monolayers. The aptasensor exhibits high specificity over not only human liver normal cells, but also other cancer cells of breast, bladder, and cervix tumors. The linear relation ranges from 1×103 to 1×105 cells/mL, with a detection limit of 300 cells/mL (S/N=3). Our work provides a simple method for detection of liver cancer cells with advantages in terms of simplicity and stability.