Surface Plasmon Resonance Clinical Biosensors for Medical Diagnostics

TLDR

The design and application of sensors for monitoring biomolecules in clinical samples is a common goal of the sensing research community, and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and related plasmonic techniques are now mature enough for clinical biomolecule monitoring. The Perspective reviews the current status of SPR clinical biosensors, highlights early successes, compares them with ELISA, and proposes research opportunities to advance the field toward clinical application. The authors review the field, detailing sensing schemes, biofluid analysis issues, and challenges in plasmonic materials, instrumentation, microfluidics, bioreceptor selection, market selection, and assay validation. Recent examples demonstrate SPR monitoring of antibodies, proteins, enzymes, drugs, small molecules, peptides, and nucleic acids in patient biofluids for conditions such as Alzheimer’s, hepatitis, diabetes, leukemia, and various cancers, illustrating progress in clinical chemistry.

Abstract

The design and application of sensors for monitoring biomolecules in clinical samples is a common goal of the sensing research community. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and other plasmonic techniques such as localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and imaging SPR are reaching a maturity level sufficient for their application in monitoring biomolecules in clinical samples. In recent years, the first examples for monitoring antibodies, proteins, enzymes, drugs, small molecules, peptides, and nucleic acids in biofluids collected from patients afflicted with a series of medical conditions (Alzheimer's, hepatitis, diabetes, leukemia, and cancers such as prostate and breast cancers, among others) demonstrate the progress of SPR sensing in clinical chemistry. This Perspective reviews the current status of the field, showcasing a series of early successes in the application of SPR for clinical analysis and detailing a series of considerations regarding sensing schemes, exposing issues with analysis in biofluids, and comparing SPR with ELISA, while providing an outlook of the challenges currently associated with plasmonic materials, instrumentation, microfluidics, bioreceptor selection, selection of a clinical market, and validation of a clinical assay for applying SPR sensors to clinical samples. Research opportunities are proposed to further advance the field and transition SPR biosensors from research proof-of-concept stage to actual clinical applications.