A new method for early diagnosis of liver cancer using a biosensor embedded in an alginate polymer thin film

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has become a pressing health problem facing the world today due to its high morbidity, high mortality, and late discovery. As a diagnostic criterion of HCC, the exact threshold of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is controversial. AFP is the most widely used serum biomarker for HCC diagnosis. However, the diagnostic specificity and sensitivity of the AFP biomarker were far from satisfactory in the early stage. Therefore, this study aims to improve the specificity and sensitivity of the AFP biomarker for early diagnosis of HCC. The detection of AFP depends on the change in the fluorescence intensity at 349 nm of the biosensor 3,3′-bis-(dimethyl[6,6′]bi[benzo[b]phenoxazinyl]-3,3′-ylidene) ammonium chloride [phenoxazinyl] embedded in an alginate polymer with different concentrations of AFP. Furthermore, the sensor could successfully discriminate the samples of healthy and diseased people, which demonstrates its suitability in AFP assessment with high sensitivity and specificity of 93.33% and 90.0%, respectively, when compared with ELISA.