Novel Cadmium Telluride Quantum Dot (QD) Fluorescent Probe for the Sensitive Determination of the Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) Biomarker Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP)

Abstract

The concentration of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) generally increases in the serum of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. Hence, AFP is a biomarker for HCC detection, diagnosis, and treatment. However, the sensitivity is unsatisfactory. Here a fluorescent probe based on CdTe quantum dots (QDs-AFP_Ab) was prepared and a simple sensitive fluorescence immunoassay on nitrocellulose membranes (NFIA) was developed for alpha-fetoprotein. This method exhibited a low detection limit of 2.18 pg/mL with a linear range from 10 to 1.0 × 10⁷ pg/mL. In addition, the sensitivity allowed the identification of HCC and non-HCC serum. This method is sensitive, easy, and low-cost for the diagnosis of HCC.

Keywords:

• Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)
• cadmium telluride quantum dots
• fluorescence probe
• hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) biomarker

Author contributions

Xixuan Gu: Investigation, Data curation, Formal analysis, Validation, Writing original draft. Qingning Li: Conceptualization, Data analysis, Drawing, Writing, Review, Editing, Supervision, Funding support. Xixuan Gu and Qingning Li made equal contribution. Xiaohui Song, Jiayu Shen, Chen Chen, Rui Yu: Methodology, Visualization. Xiaobing Yin: serum collection and pre-preparation. Keqi Tang: Supervision, Funding acquisition, Writing - review and editing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. U20A20121 and 61971248), the Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang (Grant No. 2020C03064), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant Nos. LY22F010004, LGC22B050002 and LGC21H180001), the Ningbo Science and Technology Project (Grant No. 2021S130), Project of Zhejiang Engineering Research Center of Advanced Mass Spectrometry and Clinical Application (010-532202250), Natural Science Foundation of Ningbo (2019A610189), School of Medical-Hospital Joint project of Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Pathophysiology (201912), Project of Zhejiang Engineering Research Center of Advanced Mass Spectrometry and Clinical Application (010-532202250), Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Pathophysiology (No. 202305), Ningbo University Research Fund (XYL0003), and the K.C. Wong Magna Fund in Ningbo University (Grant No. xkzwl1507).