Femtomolar Detection of Tau Proteins in Undiluted Plasma Using Surface Plasmon Resonance

Anal Chem. 2016 Aug 2;88(15):7793-9. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.6b01825. Epub 2016 Jul 22.

Abstract

The ability to directly detect Tau protein and other neurodegenerative biomarkers in human plasma at clinically relevant concentrations continues to be a significant hurdle for the establishment of diagnostic tests for Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this article, we introduce a new DNA aptamer/antibody sandwich assay pairing and apply it for the detection of human Tau 381 in undiluted plasma at concentrations as low as 10 fM. This was achieved on a multichannel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) platform with the challenge of working in plasma overcome through the development of a tailored mixed monolayer surface chemistry. In addition, a robust methodology was developed involving various same chip control measurements on reference channels to which the detection signal was normalized. Comparative measurements in plasma between SPR and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) measurements were also performed to highlight both the 1000-fold performance enhancement of SPR and the ability to measure both spiked and native concentrations that are not achievable with ELISA.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnosis
  • Aptamers, Nucleotide / chemistry
  • Biomarkers / blood
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
  • Humans
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance*
  • tau Proteins / blood*
  • tau Proteins / chemistry

Substances

  • Aptamers, Nucleotide
  • Biomarkers
  • tau Proteins