Gold Nanoparticle-Enabled Blood Test For Early Stage Cancer Detection And Risk Assessment

Keywords

autoantibodies; cancer detection; dynamic light scattering; gold nanoparticle; protein corona; tumor-specific antigens

Abstract

When citrate ligands-capped gold nanoparticles are mixed with blood sera, a protein corona is formed on the nanoparticle surface due to the adsorption of various proteins in the blood to the nanoparticles. Using a two-step gold nanoparticle-enabled dynamic light scattering assay, we discovered that the amount of human immunoglobulin G (IgG) in the gold nanoparticle protein corona is increased in prostate cancer patients compared to noncancer controls. Two pilot studies conducted on blood serum samples collected at Florida Hospital and obtained from Prostate Cancer Biorespository Network (PCBN) revealed that the test has a 90-95% specificity and 50% sensitivity in detecting early stage prostate cancer, representing a significant improvement over the current PSA test. The increased amount of human IgG found in the protein corona is believed to be associated with the autoantibodies produced in cancer patients as part of the immunodefense against tumor. Proteomic analysis of the nanoparticle protein corona revealed molecular profile differences between cancer and noncancer serum samples. Autoantibodies and natural antibodies produced in cancer patients in response to tumorigenesis have been found and detected in the blood of many cancer types. The test may be applicable for early detection and risk assessment of a broad spectrum of cancer. This new blood test is simple, low cost, requires only a few drops of blood sample, and the results are obtained within minutes. The test is well suited for screening purpose. More extensive studies are being conducted to further evaluate and validate the clinical potential of the new test.

Publication Date

4-1-2015

Publication Title

ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

Volume

7

Issue

12

Number of Pages

6819-6827

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5b00371

Socpus ID

84926300497 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84926300497

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