Electrochemical Immunosensor for Ultra-Low Detection of Human Papillomavirus Biomarker for Cervical Cancer

Peteni, Siwaphiwe; Ozoemena, Okoroike C.; Khawula, Tobile; Haruna, Aderemi B.; Rawson, Frankie J.; Shai, Leshweni J.; Ola, Oluwafunmilola; Ozoemena, Kenneth I.

Abstract

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the causative agent for cervical cancer. Of the various types of HPV, the high-risk HPV-16 type is the most important antigenic high-risk HPV. In this work, the antigenic HPV-16 L1 peptide was immobilized on a glassy carbon electrode and used to detect several concentrations of the anti-HPV-16 L1 antibody, and vice versa. Two electrode platforms were used: onion-like carbon (OLC) and its polyacrylonitrile (OLC-PAN) composites. Both platforms gave a wide linear concentration range (1.95 fg/mL to 6.25 ng/mL), excellent sensitivity (>5.2 μA/log ([HPV-16 L1, fg/mL]), and extra-ordinarily low limit of detection (LoD) of 1.83 fg/mL (32.7 aM) and 0.61 fg/mL (10.9 aM) for OLC-PAN and OLC-based immunosensors, respectively. OLC-PAN modified with the HPV-16 L1 protein showed low LoD for the HPV-16 L1 antibody (2.54 fg/mL, i.e., 45.36 aM), proving its potential use for screening purposes. The specificity of detection was proven with the anti-ovalbumin antibody (anti-OVA) and native ovalbumin protein (OVA). An immobilized antigenic HPV-16 L1 peptide showed insignificant interaction with anti-OVA in contrast with the excellent interaction with anti-HPV-16 L1 antibody, thus proving high specificity. The application of the immunosensor as a potential point-of-care (PoC) diagnostic device was investigated with screen-printed carbon electrodes, which detected ultra-low (ca. 0.7 fg/mL ≈ 12.5 aM) and high (ca. 12 μg/mL ≈ 0.21 μM) concentrations. This study represents the lowest LoD reported for HPV-16 L1. It opens the door for further investigation with other electrode platforms and realization of PoC diagnostic devices for screening and testing of HPV biomarkers for cervical cancer.

Citation

Peteni, S., Ozoemena, O. C., Khawula, T., Haruna, A. B., Rawson, F. J., Shai, L. J., Ola, O., & Ozoemena, K. I. (2023). Electrochemical Immunosensor for Ultra-Low Detection of Human Papillomavirus Biomarker for Cervical Cancer. ACS Sensors, 8(7), 2761-2770. https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.3c00677

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 13, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jun 29, 2023
• Publication Date: Jun 29, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jun 30, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 5, 2023
• Journal: ACS Sensors
• Print ISSN: 2379-3694
• Electronic ISSN: 2379-3694
• Publisher: American Chemical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 7
• Pages: 2761-2770
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.3c00677
• Keywords: Onion-like carbon; polyacrylonitrile fiber; antigenic HPV-16 L1 peptide; anti-HPV-16 L1 antibody; ovalbumin protein; anti-ovalbumin antibody; ultra-low detection
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/22453342
• Publisher URL: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssensors.3c00677