Spermine and spermidine has been considered as an important biogenic amines, play crucial roles in cell growth and proliferation, immune response, neuron regulation, and so on. Normal level of spermine in human urine is 10-15 µM. Abnormal levels of spermine/spermidine in urine, serves as a reliable biomarker in many biological deformities like psoriasis, peptic ulcers, chronic gastritis and different types of malignant tumors. Spermine is considered as the basic tool for early-stage detection of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer (Pca) is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer in men worldwide. Globally, Pca is considered as one of the top five leading causes of cancer death. Prostate cancer mortality monitoring spermine levels in urine and saliva can also be an effective technique for early-phase diagnosis and evaluating the recovery of patients undergoing chemotherapeutic treatment. Hence, it becomes imperative to develop diagnostic assays or kits that can detect spermine/spermidine in biofluids with high selectivity and sensitivity in a very small volume of sample. Considering the importance of spermine/spermidine as potential biomarker, herein, we report a rapid, highly selective, and non-invasive sensing platform by incorporating the organic molecule in agarose hydrogel. The soft hydrogel can selectively detect spermine with a limit-of detection (LOD) of 0.25 μM with a linear range from 0-50 µM. Response time (≤7 s) confirms rapid detection ability of the material. Non-interference from various metal ions, anions, monosaccharides, nucleobases, and amino acids, makes the hybrid hydrogel suitable for the real-time measurement of spermine in human urine and blood samples. We have also successfully demonstrated on blood plasma and artificial/human urine samples with a linear range of 0 to 250 µM. Thus, our probes can be used as a potential diagnostic kit for early prognosis and diagnosis of Pca.

Highly selective optical biosensor for prostate cancer specific biomarker

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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