A novel cytosensor based on Pt@Ag nanoflowers and AuNPs/Acetylene black for ultrasensitive and highly specific detection of Circulating Tumor Cells.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), as the cellular origin of metastasis, are cancer cells that break away from a primary tumor and circulate in the peripheral blood. And they provide a wealth of information about tumor phenotype. Here, this work reported a novel ultrasensitive immunoassay protocol for the detection of CTCs by using Pt@Ag nanoflowers (Pt@AgNFs) and AuNPs/Acetylene black (AuNPs/AB) nanomaterial. In the established approach, AuNPs/AB nanomaterial was used as substrate material to increase the specific surface area and enhance the conductivity of the gold electrode. Protein G was used for oriented immobilization of capture antibody, which strongly improved the capture efficiency of MCF-7 cells. The innovatively synthesized Pt@AgNFs by our group with high specific surface area and good biocompatibility were not only as the carriers of signal antibodies (Ab2 ) but also catalyzed the reduction of H2 O2 , which effectually amplified the current signal. A linear relationship between current signals and the concentrations of CTCs was obtained in the range from 20 to 1×106 cells mL-1 and the detection limit is as low as 3 cells mL-1 on condition of acceptable stability and reproducibility. Furthermore, the as-proposed cytosensor showed excellent performance in the detection of CTCs in human blood samples. These results suggest that the proposed cytosensor will be a promising application for accurately quantitative detection of CTCs.