Label-free plasmonic metasensing of PSA and exosomes in serum for rapid high-sensitivity diagnosis of early prostate cancer.

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test is widely used to diagnose early prostate cancer (PCa). Its low sensitivity, especially in the gray zone, usually incurs overtreatment or missed diagnosis. As an emerging tumor marker, exosomes have attracted great interest in non-invasive diagnosis of PCa. However, the quick direct detection of exosomes in serum is still a big challenge for convenient screening of early PCa due to their high-degree heterogeneity and complexity. Here we develop the label-free biosensors based on wafer-scale plasmonic metasurfaces, and establish a flexible spectral methodology of exosomes profiling, which facilitates their identification and quantification in serum. We combine the metasurfaces functionalized by anti-PSA and anti-CD63, respectively, and build a portable immunoassay system to detect serum PSA and exosomes simultaneously within 20 min. Our scheme can discriminate early PCa from benign prostatic hyperplasia with a diagnostic sensitivity of 92.3%, which is much higher that of 58.3% for conventional PSA tests. The receiver operating characteristic analysis in clinical trials demonstrates significant PCa distinguishing capability with an area under the curve up to 99.4%. Our work provides a rapid and powerful approach for precise diagnosis of early PCa, and will inspire more exosomes metasensing studies for other early cancer screening.

Development of Co-based bulk metallic glasses as potential biomaterials.

A new series of Co80-x-yCrxMoyP14B6 (x=5 y=5; x=5 y=10; x=10 y=10, all values in at.%) bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) with a maximum diameter of 1.5mm has been developed for using them as potential bio-implant materials by a combination of fluxing treatment and J-quenching technique. The performance of the present Co-based BMGs in biomedical implant applications was investigated as compared to the CoCrMo biomedical alloy (ASTM F75) and 316L stainless steel (316L SS). The corrosion behavior of the samples was investigated in both Hank's solution (pH=7.4) and artificial saliva solution (pH=6.3) at 37°C employing electrochemical measurements. The results indicate that the Co-based BMGs exhibit much higher corrosion resistance in the simulated body solutions than that of 316L SS. Compared with the corrosion resistance of ASTM F75, that of Co70Cr5Mo5P14B6 and Co65Cr5Mo10P14B6 BMGs is found to be lower and that of Co60Cr10Mo10P14B6 BMG is higher. The concentrations of Co, Cr, and Mo ions released into the simulated body solutions from our Co-based BMGs after potentiodynamic polarization are significantly lower than that released from ASTM F75. The biocompatibility of the specimens was evaluated using an in vitro test of NIH3T3 cell culture in the specimen extraction media for 1, 3, 5, and 7days, revealing the non-cytotoxicity of the Co-based BMGs towards NIH3T3 cells. Moreover, examinations on the cell adhesion and growth on the surface of the specimens indicate that the Co-based BMGs exhibit better cell viability compared to ASTM F75 and 316L SS biomedical alloys.

Development of Fe-based bulk metallic glasses as potential biomaterials.

A new series of Fe80-x-yCrxMoyP13C7 (x = 10, y = 10; x = 20, y = 5; x = 2 0, y = 10, all in at.%) bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) with the maximum diameter of 6mm have been developed for biomedical implant application by the combination method of fluxing treatment and J-quenching technique. The corrosion performance of the present Fe-based BMGs is investigated in both Hank's solution (pH = 7.4) and artificial saliva solution (pH = 6.3) at 37 °C by electrochemical measurements. The result indicates that the corrosion resistance of the present Fe-based BMGs in the above two simulated body solutions is much better than that of biomedical 316 L stainless steel (316 L SS), and approaching that of Ti6Al4V biomedical alloy (TC4). The concentrations of Fe, Ni and Cr ions released into the Hank's solution and artificial saliva solution from the present Fe-based BMGs after potentiodynamic polarization are significant lower than that released from 316 L SS. The biocompatibility of the present Fe-based BMGs is evaluated through the in vitro test of NIH3T3 cells culture in the present Fe-based BMG extraction media for 1, 3 and 5 days. The result indicates that the present Fe-based BMGs exhibit no cytotoxicity to NIH3T3 cells. And the test result of the cell adhesion and growth on the surface of the samples indicates that the present Fe-based BMGs exhibit the better cell viability compared with 316 L SS and TC4 biomedical alloys. The present Fe-based BMGs, especially Fe55Cr20Mo5P13C7 BMG, exhibit good glass formation ability, the high corrosion resistance and excellent biocompatibility, suggesting their promising potential as biomaterials.