Morphology and optical properties of Au-Ag hybrid nanoparticles regulation and its ultra-sensitive SERS immunoassay detection in carbohydrate antigen 19-9

Gao-Feng Wu; Jian Zhu; Guo-Jun Weng; Hao-Yu Cai; Jian-Jun Li; Jun-Wu Zhao

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2024.126131

Morphology and optical properties of Au-Ag hybrid nanoparticles regulation and its ultra-sensitive SERS immunoassay detection in carbohydrate antigen 19-9

Talanta. 2024 Apr 19:275:126131. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2024.126131. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Gao-Feng Wu¹, Jian Zhu², Guo-Jun Weng¹, Hao-Yu Cai¹, Jian-Jun Li¹, Jun-Wu Zhao³

Affiliations

¹ The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, People's Republic of China.
² The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: zhujian@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
³ The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, 710049, People's Republic of China. Electronic address: nanoptzhao@163.com.

PMID: 38663064
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2024.126131

Abstract

The development of an ultra-sensitive detection method for carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) is very important for the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. In this work, we developed a new strategy to achieve a variety of Au-Ag hybrid nanoparticles from janus to core-satellite which is controlled by the volume of AgNO₃ and the concentration of benzimidazolecarboxylic acid (MBIA). With the volume of AgNO₃ increased, Au-Ag hybrid nanoparticles changed from janus to core-satellite and the characteristic absorption peak showed two opposite trends. The size and number of Ag islands were determined by the concentration of MBIA. Au-Ag core-satellites nanoparticles with a large number of small-sized Ag have the highest SERS intensity. Then we used them as SERS nanotags and Au-Polystyrene nanospheres modified by captured anti-CA19-9 antibody as solid substrates to realize the ultra-sensitive detection of CA19-9 with a low limit of detection of 1.25 × 10^-6 IU/mL and a wide linear range of 1.00 × 10^-5 -1.00 × 10⁴ IU/mL. This work not only demonstrates that MBIA and AgNO₃ were the key factors in the growth of Au-Ag hybrid nanoparticles from 2D to 3D structure but also supplies an ultra-sensitive detection method for CA19-9 which has a potential practicability in the clinical early diagnoses of pancreatic cancer.

Keywords: Au-Ag hybrid nanoparticles; Au–Ag core-satellite nanoparticles; Carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9); Pancreatic cancer; Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS).