Ultrasensitive Determination of Glial-Fibrillary-Acidic-Protein (GFAP) in Human Serum-Matrix with a Label-Free Impedimetric Immunosensor

Quantum dot-to-dye-based fluorescent ratiometric immunoassay for GFAP: a biomarker for ischaemic stroke and glioblastoma multiforme

Ischaemic stroke and glioma, as leading causes of mortality and long-term disability, pose critical challenges to healthcare systems, necessitating innovative approaches to enable early and cost-effective diagnosis for timely intervention. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an astrocyte-produced protein, is highly responsive to both ischaemic stroke and glioblastoma multiforme, with its levels correlating to the extent of brain damage. In this study, we present the development of an immunoassay probe for the ratiometric fluorescent detection of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), employing a monoclonal GFAP antibody-conjugated silicon quantum dots (Ab@SiQDs) and rhodamine B dye (RhB)-based immunoprobe. The developed probe exhibited a fluorescence emission shift from 580 nm to 530 nm in response to GFAP, demonstrating a linear detection range from 31.15 pg mL-1 to 243 pg mL-1, with a limit of detection of 0.7 pg mL-1. Additionally, the immunoprobe showed high selectivity for GFAP, effectively discriminating it from other potential interfering biomolecules and ions. The probe was also capable of detecting GFAP in spiked serum samples, achieving a recovery rate ranging from 83% to 111%. Notably, a cost-effective paper strip assay was developed, offering significant potential for the visual detection of GFAP under ultraviolet illumination.

An Ultrasensitive Molecularly Imprinted Point-Of-Care Electrochemical Sensor for Detection of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein

Accurate assessment of neurological disease through monitoring of biomarkers has been made possible using the antibody-based assays. But these assays suffer from expensive development of antibody probes, reliance on complicated equipments, and high maintenance costs. Here, using the novel reduced graphene oxide/polydopamine-molecularly imprinted polymer (rGO/PDA-MIP) as the probe layer, a robust electrochemical sensing platform is demonstrated for the ultrasensitive detection of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a biomarker for a range of neurological diseases. A miniaturized integrated circuit readout system is developed to interface with the electrochemical sensor, which empowers it with the potential to be used as a point-of-care (POC) diagnostic tool in primary clinical settings. This innovative platform demonstrated good sensitivity, selectivity, and stability, with imprinting factor evaluated as 2.8. A record low limit-of-detection (LoD) is down to 754.5 ag mL-1, with a wide dynamic range from 1 to 106 fg mL-1. The sensing platform is validated through the analysis of GFAP in clinical plasma samples, yielding a recovery rate range of 81.6-108.8% compared to Single Molecule Array (Simoa). This cost-effective and user-friendly sensing platform holds the potential to be deployed in primary and resource-limited clinical settings for the assessment of neurological diseases.

The Evaluation of Clinical Applications for the Detection of the Alzheimer's Disease Biomarker GFAP

One of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases is Alzheimer's disease (AD). The hallmarks of AD include the accumulation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, which cause related secondary diseases, progressive neurodegeneration, and ultimately death. The most prevalent cell type in the human central nervous system, astrocytes, are crucial for controlling neuronal function. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is released from tissue into the bloodstream due to astrocyte breakdown in neurological diseases. Increased levels of GFAP in the serum can function as blood markers and be an effective prognostic indicator to help diagnose neurological conditions early on, from stroke to neurodegenerative diseases. The human central nervous system (CNS) is greatly affected by diseases associated with blood GFAP levels. These include multiple sclerosis, intracerebral hemorrhage, glioblastoma multiforme, traumatic brain injuries, and neuromyelitis optica. GFAP demonstrates a strong diagnostic capacity for projecting outcomes following an injury. Furthermore, the increased ability to identify GFAP protein fragments helps facilitate treatment, as it allows continuous screening of CNS injuries and early identification of potential recurrences. GFAP has recently gained attention due to data showing that the plasma biomarker is effective in identifying AD pathology. AD accounts for 60-70% of the approximately 50 million people with dementia worldwide. It is critical to develop molecular markers for AD, whose number is expected to increase to about 3 times and affect humans by 2050, and to investigate possible targets to confirm their effectiveness in the early diagnosis of AD. In addition, most diagnostic methods currently used are image-based and do not detect early disease, i.e. before symptoms appear; thus, treatment options and outcomes are limited. Therefore, recently developed methods such as point-of-care (POC), on-site applications, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay-polymerase chain reaction (ELISA-PCR) that provide both faster and more accurate results are gaining importance. This systematic review summarizes published studies with different approaches such as immunosensor, lateral flow, POC, ELISA-PCR, and molecularly imprinted polymer using GFAP, a potential blood biomarker to detect neurological disorders. Here, we also provide an overview of current approaches, analysis methods, and different future detection strategies for GFAP, the most popular biosensing field.

Label-free electrochemical immunosensing of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) at synthesized rGO/MoS2/AgNPs nanocomposite. Application to the determination in human cerebrospinal fluid

An electrochemical bioplatform involving screen-printed carbon electrodes modified with rGO/MoS2/AgNPs nanocomposites, the covalent immobilization of the specific capture antibody, and label-free detection has been developed for the determination of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP). The resulting immunosensor profits the benefits of the rGO high conductivity, the pseudo-peroxidase activity of MoS2 and the electrocatalytic effect provided by AgNPs for improving the reduction current responses of hydrogen peroxide at the electrode surface. GFAP is a biomarker of central nervous system injuries has been proposed for the detection and monitoring of neurological diseases as epilepsy, encephalitis, or multiple sclerosis. For the first time, amperometric detection of the immunosensing event was performed by measuring the electrocatalytic response of hydrogen peroxide reduction at the modified electrode. Several techniques including scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopies were used for the characterization of the synthesized composite whilst electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) using the redox probe Fe(CN)63-/4- was employed to evaluate the success of the steps implied in the fabrication of the immunosensor. After optimization of the involved experimental variables, a linear calibration plot for GFAP was constructed over the 0.6-100 ng mL-1 range, and a detection limit of 0.16 ng mL-1 was achieved. The developed immunosensor was successfully applied to the determination of GFAP in human cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients diagnosed with encephalitis.

Prediction of clinical progression in nervous system diseases: plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)

Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an intracellular type III intermediate filament protein, provides structural support and maintains the mechanical integrity of astrocytes. It is predominantly found in the astrocytes which are the most abundant subtypes of glial cells in the brain and spinal cord. As a marker protein of astrocytes, GFAP may exert a variety of physiological effects in neurological diseases. For example, previous published literatures showed that autoimmune GFAP astrocytopathy is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Moreover, the studies of GFAP in brain tumors mainly focus on the predictive value of tumor volume. Furthermore, using biomarkers in the early setting will lead to a simplified and standardized way to estimate the poor outcome in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and ischemic stroke. Recently, observational studies revealed that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) GFAP, as a valuable potential diagnostic biomarker for neurosyphilis, had a sensitivity of 76.60% and specificity of 85.56%. The reason plasma GFAP could serve as a promising biomarker for diagnosis and prediction of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is that it effectively distinguished AD dementia from multiple neurodegenerative diseases and predicted the individual risk of AD progression. In addition, GFAP can be helpful in differentiating relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) versus progressive MS (PMS). This review article aims to provide an overview of GFAP in the prediction of clinical progression in neuroinflammation, brain tumors, TBI, ischemic stroke, genetic disorders, neurodegeneration and other diseases in the CNS and to explore the potential therapeutic methods.