Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Nov 6;17(11):2559.
doi: 10.3390/s17112559.

Label-Free Detection of Cancer Biomarkers Using an In-Line Taper Fiber-Optic Interferometer and a Fiber Bragg Grating

Dandan Sun  1 , Yang Ran  2 , Guanjun Wang  3
Affiliations

Label-Free Detection of Cancer Biomarkers Using an In-Line Taper Fiber-Optic Interferometer and a Fiber Bragg Grating

Dandan Sun et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

A compact and label-free optical fiber sensor based on a taper interferometer cascaded with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated for detection of a breast cancer biomarker (HER2). The tapered fiber-optic interferometer is extremely sensitive to the ambient refractive index (RI). In addition, being insensitive to the RI variation, the FBG can be applied as a temperature thermometer due to its independent response to the temperature. Surface functionalization to the sensor is carried out to achieve specific targeting of the unlabeled biomarkers. The result shows that the proposed sensor presents a low limit-of-detection (LOD) of 2 ng/mL, enabling its potentials of application in early diagnosis on the breast cancer.

Keywords: FBG; cancer biomarker; fiber taper interferometer; optical biosensor.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) The experimental setup including this sensor structure of the tapered fiber-optic interferometer with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and (b) the transmission spectrum for different RI values.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Wavelength response of the tapered fiber-optic interferometer and FBG versus (a) RI and (b) temperature.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(a) The scheme of surface functionalization of the tapered fiber-optic interferometer with FBG biosensors; (b–e) AFM images of the fiber surface in the conjugation process: (b) bare fiber; (c) silanization and crosslinking reaction (APTES + glutaraldehyde); (d) HER2 antibody; (e) biomarker detection).
Figure 4
Figure 4
The real-time wavelength response of surface-functionalized biosensors in the HER2 antibody solution (10 µg/mL).
Figure 5
Figure 5
(a) The real-time wavelength response and (b) the measured transmission spectra of surface-functionalized biosensors in the HER2 biomarker solution (10 ng/mL).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Statistical sensing results over repeat measurement with different concentrations of HER2 biomarker and PBS buffer solution in the absence of HER2 biomarker.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bohunicky B., Mousa S.A. Biosensors: The new wave in cancer diagnosis. Nanotechnol. Sci. Appl. 2010;4:1–10. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ribaut C., Loyez M., Larrieu J.-C., Chevineau S., Lambert P., Remmelink M., Wattiez R., Caucheteur C. Cancer biomarker sensing using packaged plasmonic optical fiber gratings: Towards in vivo diagnosis. Biosens. Bioelectron. 2016;92:449–456. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2016.10.081. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Slamon D.J., Leyland-Jones B., Shak S., Fuchs H., Paton V., Bajamonde A., Fleming T., Eiermann W., Wolter J., Pegram M., et al. Use of chemotherapy plus a monoclonal antibody against HER2 for metastatic breast cancer that overexpresses HER2. N. Engl. J. Med. 2001;344:783–792. doi: 10.1056/NEJM200103153441101. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Cho H.S., Mason K., Ramyar K.X., Stanley A.M., Gabelli S.B., Denney D.W., Jr., Leahy D.J. Structure of the extracellular region of HER2 alone and in complex with the Herceptin Fab. Nature. 2003;421:756–760. doi: 10.1038/nature01392. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Pauletti G., Dandekar S., Rong H.M., Ramos L., Peng H.J., Seshadri R., Slamon D.J. Assessment of methods for tissue-based detection of the HER-2/neu alteration in human breast cancer: A direct comparison of fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. J. Clin. Oncol. 2000;18:3651–3664. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2000.18.21.3651. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources