Gold nanoprobe-based method for sensing activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) gene expression, as a breast cancer biomarker

In breast cancer, a proper biomarker for the assessment of metastasis and poor prognosis is the RNA of activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) gene, which is expressed at high levels in breast tumor. We applied DNA-functionalized gold nanoparticles as the target-specific probes, for detecting specific sequences of DNA or RNA. At high MgCL2 concentrations, nanoprobes aggregate in the absence of the complementary DNA sequence and alteration in the solution color is detectable by evaluating the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). But in the presence of complementary DNA, nanoprobes hybridize to the complementary sequence; therefore, no aggregation takes place, and no color change is observed. We designed a gold nanoprobe-based method that promptly detects the ALCAM gene expression in a low reaction volume with high sensitivity and specificity. This method is simple, fast, selective, and quantitative and can be done with small concentrations of the target (fmol/mu L). Limit of detection of the method corresponded to 300 fmol/mu L of synthetic ALCAM target.