Gold Nanocluster-Based Capture-Detection Platform for Clinical Diagnosis of Early Lung Cancer

The detection of autoantibodies (AAbs) with low-cost and noninvasiveness advantages has emerged as a promising technique for the diagnosis of early-stage lung cancer (LC). However, the specificity and sensitivity are frequently restricted to the characteristics of the antigens and the detection systems such as an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Here, a highly sensitive and specific gold nanocluster-based capture-detection platform was developed to detect anti-PDL1 AAb as the biomarker of LC, for the diagnosis of early-stage LC. The nano capture-detection platform was composed of streptavidin magnetic beads conjugated PDL1 peptide (MB-peptide), serving as the capture probe, and goat-anti-human-IgG conjugated horseradish peroxidase-coated gold nanoclusters (anti-IgG-HRP-AuNCs) as the detection nanoprobe. Notably, the nanoplatform exhibited strikingly sensitive and specific detection of anti-PDL1 AAb, owing to the integration of the MB-peptide’s precision recognition capabilities with the excellent peroxidase activity and profound affinity for IgG displayed by the anti-IgG-HRP-AuNCs. Furthermore, the innovative nanoplatform harnessing optical detection technology significantly boosted detection efficiency and dramatically reduced the analysis time from the traditional 12 h process to a mere 50 min. Additionally, this advanced system demonstrated significantly enhanced sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing early-stage LC, substantiating the tremendous potential of the AuNCs-based capture-detection platform for clinical applications in the early detection of LC in the future.