Antimonene-based surface plasmon resonance with antibody S9.6 signal amplification for miRNA detection

This study investigates the efficacy of surface plasmon resonance sensors incorporating antimonene for the enhanced detection of microRNA (miRNA). The differential Mueller matrix method is employed to extract linear birefringence (LB, alpha) and circular dichroism (CD, R) of the miRNA sample from the measurements obtained using a surface plasmon resonance prism coupler and a self-built Stokes polarimetry system. The intensity of the detection signal received from the SPR coupler is amplified through the application of a thin antibody S9.6 layer deposited on the sensor surface. The values of alpha and R of two miRNA sequences, namely hsa-miR-21-5p and hsamiR-125-5p over the concentration range of 0-1000 fM. The surface plasmon resonance sensor shows a resolution of 21.29 fM for miR-21-5p detection and 27.65 fM for miR-125-5p detection. In general, the proposed antimonene-based SPR sensor provides a useful tool for miRNA detection at the femtomole level and thus contributes to the advancement of cancer diagnostic applications.