A Portable Biosensor Based on Au Nanoflower Interface Combined with Electrochemical Immunochromatography for POC Detection of Prostate-Specific Antigen

Serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a widely used for the detection of prostate cancer and is considered the most reliable biomarker. However, the currently reported detection methods cannot achieve rapid monitoring. Here, we report a novel electrochemical immunochromatography (EIC) system for clinically accurate PSA detection. First, we constructed a carbon interface modified with gold nanoflowers (Au NFs) based on screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCE), which acted as nanostructures with larger specific surface area that increased the number of PSA capture antibodies and can further improve detection signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. Then, we fabricated detection chips by combining the SPCE/Au NFs with EIC. Under optimized conditions, the proposed biosensor exhibits high accuracy, taking only 15 minutes to complete detection. By measuring the levels of PSA in clinical blood samples, the biosensor can successfully discriminate clinically diagnosed prostate cancer patients from healthy controls.