A nanostructured SAW chip-based biosensor detecting cancer cells

A nanostructured chip surface was fabricated enabling binding via spaced antibodies specifically targeting surface proteins of cancer cells and detection of extremely low numbers of circulating tumor cells (CTC) without labeling using a sam® 5 biosensor. The antibody surfaces mostly were generated by self assembly of antibodies to gold nanospots on the sensitive SiO2-surface of a sam® 5 chip. Compared with a complete gold surface, only 40% of the amount of antibodies was bound to the nanospot surface, but structured such that 15-fold higher sensitivity to vital cancer cells was achieved. Human cancer cell lines JEG-3 (lymphoblastic leukemia) and MOLT-17 (placental choriocarcinoma) from cell cultures were successfully detected. The sensor showed significant responses on less than 10 cells injected in a single run. The extreme increase in sensitivity and its simple regeneration emphasizes the usefulness of its introduction in biomedical applications.