Molecularly imprinted polymers outperform lectin counterparts and enable more precise cancer diagnosis
Jilei Pang, Pengfei Li, Hui He, Shuxin Xu, Zhen Liu
Abstract
agglutinin (LCA)-reactive fraction (AFP-L3), which is mainly composed of core-fucosylated glycans, were used as two target proteoforms to test in this study. Using two MIPs that can specifically recognize the peptide sequence of AFP as well as a fucose-imprinted MIP that can specifically recognize the AFP-L3 fraction, facile simultaneous plasmon-enhanced Raman detection of AFP and AFP-L3 in serum was achieved, which allowed HCC patients to be distinguished from healthy individuals. Due to the excellent recognition properties of the MIPs that are comparable to those of antibodies and superior to those of lectins, our triMIP-PISA method exhibited improved precision as compared with an antibody plus lectin-based immunofluorescence assay. Thus, this strategy opened a new avenue towards the precise diagnosis of cancer.