Evaluation of an Element-Tagged Duplex Immunoassay Coupled with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry Detection: A Further Study for the Application of the New Assay in Clinical Laboratory

Simultaneous determination of inflammatory factors SAA and LTF based on stable element labeling and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to aid in the diagnosis of infection

OBJECTIVE

The clinical value of Serum amyloid A (SAA) and Lactoferrin (LTF) has received significant attention, but their detection methods are inadequate, which limits their application. This study aims to develop a dual detection method based on stable element labeling strategies and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for SAA/LTF and to assess whether it can be widely used in clinical practice.

METHODS

A duplex immunoassay system based on sandwich method was constructed. After optimization, methodological evaluation was performed with the guidelines of Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). Finally, 131 plasma samples were collected to analyze whether the new method is suitable for clinical detection.

RESULTS

The LoB, LLoQ, ULoQ, and linear range of the assay were 1.09 ng/mL, 3 ng/mL, 1500 ng/mL, 3-1500 ng/mL for SAA and 0.85 ng/mL, 2 ng/mL, 1200 ng/mL, 2-1200 ng/mL for LTF respectively. The recovery rates were 95.01% to 106.26%, the intra-batch precision of low, intermediate, and high-level samples was <8%, and the inter-batch of them was <11%, the deviation of interference test results was less than±10%. The Area Under the Curve (AUC) was 0.9809 for SAA, 0.8599 for LTF, and 0.9986 for combination.

CONCLUSION

The quantitative duplex immunoassay for SAA/LTF has high accuracy, good precision, and high specificity, which meets the clinical testing requirements and can be widely used in clinical practice.

Dual-signal ratiometric electrochemical immunosensor constructed with snowflake-like FeSe2-AuNPs and PAA-ZIF@TB for sensitive detection of CYFRA21-1

In this study, a ratiometric electrochemical immunosensor has been developed to detect the cytokeratin 19 fragment 21-1 (CYFRA21-1) biomarker in a highly sensitive manner through a dual-signal output model. As one of signal indicators, snowflake-like FeSe₂ loaded with AuNPs (FeSe₂-AuNPs) as sensing substrate with good conductivity and large active sites provides a differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) signal at +0.4 V. Another signal indicator, toluidine blue (TB) with the water-solubility property is an excellent redox probe that can generate DPV signal at -0.3 V. To solve the water-solubility problem, the TB is absorbed with polyacrylic acid (PAA) functionalized ZIF-67 (PAA-ZIF-67), which retains the properties of ZIF-67 that are large specific surface area and strong adsorption properties. The ratio of signals, stemmed from PAA-ZIF@TB and FeSe₂-AuNPs (I_PAA-ZIF@TB/I_FeSe2-AuNPs), increases with the CYFRA21-1 concentration. Under optimal experimental conditions, CYFRA21-1 was detected in a wide dynamic range from 0.1 pg/mL to 100 ng/mL, with a lower limit of detection of 0.02 pg/mL. Looking ahead, this ratio based strategy provides prospective clinical applications for detecting other biomarkers.

Highly sensitive and multiplexed mass spectrometric immunoassay techniques and clinical applications

Immunoassay is one of the most important clinical techniques for disease/pathological diagnosis. Mass spectrometry (MS) has been a popular and powerful readout technique for immunoassays, generating the mass spectrometric immunoassays (MSIAs) with unbeatable channels for multiplexed detection. The sensitivity of MSIAs has been greatly improved with the development of mass labels from element labels to small-molecular labels. MSIAs are also expended from the representative element MS-based methods to the laser-based organic MS and latest ambient MS, improving in both technology and methodology. Various MSIAs present high potential for clinical applications, including the biomarker screening, the immunohistochemistry, and the advanced single-cell analysis. Here, we give an overall review of the development of MSIAs in recent years, highlighting the latest improvement of mass labels and MS techniques for clinical immunoassays.

The application of CA72-4 in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of gastric cancer

The role of conventional serum tumor marker, carbohydrate antigen 72-4 (CA72-4), in assisting diagnosis, monitoring dynamic progression, and evaluating the prognosis of gastric cancer (GC) should not be ignored, especially in the Chinese population. Even though CA72-4 has been used in clinical practice for decades, its modest positivity rate, sensitivity, and specificity did not meet the high demand of the clinical application. However, over the years, some progress in the functions of CA72-4 has been achieved, suggesting that CA72-4 can still be considered a promising marker in oncology. As a biomarker, CA72-4 can achieve improved sensitivity (SEN) and specificity (SPE) when combined with other biomarkers, selecting suitable reference values, improving detection techniques, and identifying the risk threshold. As a predictor, elevated serum CA72-4 levels were found to be significantly associated with prognostic risk factors, further assessing therapeutic validity and resectability. Recently, an effective method to reduce the toxicity of CA72-4 targeted therapy has been developed. Moreover, CA72-4 could induce novel aptamers to react with tumor cells and enhance the efficacy of trastuzumab in HER2-positive GC. Therefore, in this review, we discuss the most recent application of CA72-4 in the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of GC.

Study of Long-Term Determination Accuracy for REEs in Geological Samples by Inductively Coupled Plasma Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry

This work presents the long-term determination accuracy study of ICP-QMS for rare earth elements (REEs) in geological matrices. Following high-pressure closed acidic decomposition, REEs are measured repetitively across seven months by ICP-QMS. Under optimum experimental conditions (including spray chamber temperature, gas flow rate, sampling depth, etc.), the REE contents in geological standard materials from basic (basalt BCR-2 and BE-N) to intermediate (andesite AGV-2) and up to acidic (granite GSR-1) show good agreement with the certified values, giving relative errors below 10%. Here, the influence of two storage materials (perfluoroalkoxy PFA and polypropylene PP) on the long-term determination accuracy of REEs has also been monitored. It is found that the relative errors of REEs using a PFA container range from −6.6 to 6.3% (RSDs < 6.0%), while that using a PP container are within −4.0 to 3.9% (RSDs < 4.6%). By using PP material as a solution storage container, the accuracy of REEs quantification in a series of real geological samples are checked, showing the RSDs of less than 5.0%. This work first clarifies the long-term stability of REEs quantification by ICP-QMS covering two types of storage materials, confirming the reasonability of PP material as a daily storage container in terms of higher data precision and lower cost.