Simple diagnosis of cancer by detecting CEA and CYFRA 21-1 in saliva using electronic sensors

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 15315 - 13
• Main Authors: Joshi, Sowmya, Kallappa, Shashidhar, Kumar, Pranjal, Shukla, Sudhanshu, Ghosh, Ruma
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 12.09.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/925/918; 639/925/930; 692/4028; 692/53; 692/700; Antibodies; Antigens; Biomarkers; Biosensors; Body fluids; Bovine serum albumin; Carcinoembryonic antigen; Charged particles; Cytokeratin; Diagnosis; Graphene; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hydrogen bonds; Lung cancer; Medical diagnosis; multidisciplinary; Nanomaterials; Oral cancer; Oral carcinoma; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; Prototypes; Saliva; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensors; Squamous cell carcinoma
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-19593-8

One way of early diagnosis of cancer is by detecting the biomarkers that get introduced into easily accessible body fluids. We report the development of portable and rapid electronic biosensors for quantitative detection of two secretive cancer biomarkers–Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and Cytokeratin fragment 19 (CYFRA 21-1). The reduced graphene oxide (rGO)/ melamine (MEL)/antibodies/ bovine serum albumin (BSA) based devices were tested for 1 pg/mL to 800 ng/mL of CEA and CYFRA 21-1. The responses of the sensors ranged from 7.14 to 59.1% and from 6.18 to 64% for 1 pg/mL to 800 ng/mL CEA and CYFRA 21-1 respectively. A read-out circuit was assembled to develop a portable prototype which was used to assess the concentrations of the two antigens present in saliva samples of 14 subjects. The prototype could accurately discriminate between 9 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and 5 healthy controls.