Staff directory
Maria Soler Aznar
Senior Researcher
RYC 2020
maria.soler(ELIMINAR)@icn2.cat
NanoBiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications
- ORCID: 0000-0001-7232-2277
Publications
2017
-
Recent advances in nanoplasmonic biosensors: Applications and lab-on-a-chip integration
Lopez G.A., Estevez M.-C., Soler M., Lechuga L.M. Nanophotonics; 6 (1): 123 - 136. 2017. 10.1515/nanoph-2016-0101. IF: 4.492
Motivated by the recent progress in the nanofabrication field and the increasing demand for cost-effective, portable, and easy-to-use point-of-care platforms, localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) biosensors have been subjected to a great scientific interest in the last few years. The progress observed in the research of this nanoplasmonic technology is remarkable not only from a nanostructure fabrication point of view but also in the complete development and integration of operative devices and their application. The potential benefits that LSPR biosensors can offer, such as sensor miniaturization, multiplexing opportunities, and enhanced performances, have quickly positioned them as an interesting candidate in the design of lab-on-a-chip (LOC) optical biosensor platforms. This review covers specifically the most significant achievements that occurred in recent years towards the integration of this technology in compact devices, with views of obtaining LOC devices. We also discuss the most relevant examples of the use of the nanoplasmonic biosensors for real bioanalytical and clinical applications from assay development and validation to the identification of the implications, requirements, and challenges to be surpassed to achieve fully operative devices. © 2016, Laura M. Lechuga et al., published by De Gruyter.
2016
-
Label-free nanoplasmonic sensing of tumor-associate autoantibodies for early diagnosis of colorectal cancer
Soler M., Estevez M.-C., Villar-Vazquez R., Casal J.I., Lechuga L.M. Analytica Chimica Acta; 930: 31 - 38. 2016. 10.1016/j.aca.2016.04.059. IF: 4.712
Colorectal cancer is treatable and curable when detected at early stages. However there is a lack of less invasive and more specific screening and diagnosis methods which would facilitate its prompt identification. Blood circulating autoantibodies which are immediately produced by the immune system at tumor appearance have become valuable biomarkers for preclinical diagnosis of cancer. In this work, we present the rapid and label-free detection of colorectal cancer autoantibodies directly in blood serum or plasma using a recently developed nanoplasmonic biosensor. Our nanoplasmonic device offers sensitive and real-time quantification of autoantibodies with excellent selectivity and reproducibility, achieving limits of detection around 1 nM (150-160 ng mL-1). A preliminary evaluation of clinical samples of colorectal cancer patients has shown good correlation with ELISA. These results demonstrate the reliability of the nanobiosensor strategy and pave the way towards the achievement of a sensitive diagnostic tool for early detection of colorectal cancer. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.
-
Label-free SPR detection of gluten peptides in urine for non-invasive celiac disease follow-up
Soler M., Estevez M.-C., Moreno M.D.L., Cebolla A., Lechuga L.M. Biosensors and Bioelectronics; 79: 158 - 164. 2016. 10.1016/j.bios.2015.11.097. IF: 7.476
Motivated by the necessity of new and efficient methods for dietary gluten control of celiac patients, we have developed a simple and highly sensitive SPR biosensor for the detection of gluten peptides in urine. The sensing methodology enables rapid and label-free quantification of the gluten immunogenic peptides (GIP) by using G12 mAb. The overall performance of the biosensor has been in-depth optimized and evaluated in terms of sensitivity, selectivity and reproducibility, reaching a limit of detection of 0.33ngmL-1. Besides, the robustness and stability of the methodology permit the continuous use of the biosensor for more than 100 cycles with excellent repeatability. Special efforts have been focused on preventing and minimizing possible interferences coming from urine matrix enabling a direct analysis in this fluid without requiring extraction or purification procedures. Our SPR biosensor has proven to detect and identify gluten consumption by evaluating urine samples from healthy and celiac individuals with different dietary gluten conditions. This novel biosensor methodology represents a novel approach to quantify the digested gluten peptides in human urine with outstanding sensitivity in a rapid and non-invasive manner. Our technique should be considered as a promising opportunity to develop Point-of-Care (POC) devices for an efficient, simple and accurate gluten free diet (GFD) monitoring as well as therapy follow-up of celiac disease patients. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.
2015
-
Highly sensitive dendrimer-based nanoplasmonic biosensor for drug allergy diagnosis
Soler M., Mesa-Antunez P., Estevez M.-C., Ruiz-Sanchez A.J., Otte M.A., Sepulveda B., Collado D., Mayorga C., Torres M.J., Perez-Inestrosa E., Lechuga L.M. Biosensors and Bioelectronics; 66: 115 - 123. 2015. 10.1016/j.bios.2014.10.081. IF: 6.409
A label-free biosensing strategy for amoxicillin (AX) allergy diagnosis based on the combination of novel dendrimer-based conjugates and a recently developed nanoplasmonic sensor technology is reported. Gold nanodisks were functionalized with a custom-designed thiol-ending-polyamido-based dendron (d-BAPAD) peripherally decorated with amoxicilloyl (AXO) groups (d-BAPAD-AXO) in order to detect specific IgE generated in patient's serum against this antibiotic during an allergy outbreak. This innovative strategy, which follows a simple one-step immobilization procedure, shows exceptional results in terms of sensitivity and robustness, leading to a highly-reproducible and long-term stable surface which allows achieving extremely low limits of detection. Moreover, the viability of this biosensor approach to analyze human biological samples has been demonstrated by directly analyzing and quantifying specific anti-AX antibodies in patient's serum without any sample pretreatment. An excellent limit of detection (LoD) of 0.6. ng/mL (i.e. 0.25. kU/L) has been achieved in the evaluation of clinical samples evidencing the potential of our nanoplasmonic biosensor as an advanced diagnostic tool to quickly identify allergic patients. The results have been compared and validated with a conventional clinical immunofluorescence assay (ImmunoCAP test), confirming an excellent correlation between both techniques. The combination of a novel compact nanoplasmonic platform and a dendrimer-based strategy provides a highly sensitive label free biosensor approach with over two times better detectability than conventional SPR. Both the biosensor device and the carrier structure hold great potential in clinical diagnosis for biomarker analysis in whole serum samples and other human biological samples. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.