Label-free electrochemical biosensor for direct detection of Oncostatin M (OSM) inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) biomarker in human serum

Oncostatin M (OSM) is an interleukin-6 (IL-6) member family cytokine implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic diseases including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). OSM is a novel diagnostic biomarker over-expressed in the serum of IBD patients. This paper reports on the first electrochemical OSM immunosensor, developed using a multistep fabrication process aimed at covalently immobilizing OSM antibodies on a mixed self-assembled monolayer coated gold working electrode. Cyclic voltammetry, atomic force microscopy (AFM), IR spectroscopy and optical characterizations were used to validate the sensor functionalization protocol. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements were performed to assess the reliability of the immunosensor preparation and to verify the antibody-antigen complexes formation. The label-free immunosensor showed high sensitivity identifying OSM at clinically relevant concentrations (37-1000 pg mL-1) with low detection limit of 2.86 pg mL-1. Both sensitivity and selectivity of the proposed immunosensor were also demonstrated in human serum in the presence of interfering biomarkers, making it an innovative potential platform for the OSM biomarker detection in IBD patients' serum.