PVA-based nanobiosensor for ultrasensitive detection of folic acid by fluorescence quenching

By Chakravarty, Sudesna; Dutta, Priyanka; Kalita, Sanjeeb; Sarma, Neelotpal Sen
Published in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical NULL 2016

Abstract

Abstract The present work demonstrates in vitro folic acid sensing with a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) based hybrid hydrogel as an efficient and cost effective fluorescence quenching based sensor. This new sensor PVA-tryptophan-CdTe {QDs} (PTQ), exhibited better sensing efficiency with an excellent limit of detection (0.57 pg/ml) compared to commercially available {ELISA} kits. The excellent sensitivity was attributed to a combination of a strong Photoinduced Electron Transfer process and an Inner Filter Effect in the sensor-folic acid interaction. The real time sensing applications of the sensor was investigated for folic acid present in the blood serum samples of healthy mice and human; and cancer infected mice and human. Our sensor exhibited efficient sensing for folic acid in the blood serum samples of acute myeloid leukemia [limit of detection (LOD) 42.29 ng/ml] and ovarian cancer effected patients (LOD 365 ng/ml). The {LOD} value indicates that our sensor is highly efficient toward sensing of {FA} in acute myeloid leukemia as its {LOD} value lies below 110 ng/ml. Such works will help to bring together material chemists, biologists and clinicians in a single platform to develop cost effective, photostable and specific assays for diagnostic purposes.

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