Coupling solid-phase microextractions and surface-enhanced Raman scattering: towards a point-of-need tool for hepatic cancer screening†
Abstract
A method for performing rapid, highly portable immunoassays at low limits of detection (LoD) has been developed by combining solid-phase microextraction membranes, gold nanoparticle labels, and surface-enhanced Raman scattering. The capability of this methodology is demonstrated through measurements of alphafetoprotein, a marker used to screen individuals for hepatocellular carcinoma, directly from human serum at an estimated LoD of 3 pg mL−1 in ∼2 min.