A Lateral Flow Immunoassay for Prostate-Specific Antigen Detection Using Silica-Coated CdSe@ZnS Quantum Dots

Protein detection technologies are important for early disease diagnosis because of their advantages over biopsy testing. Considering the diagnostic potential of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in prostate cancer, in this study, we present a lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) for successful detection of PSA by using silica-coated CdSe@ZnS quantum dots (QD@SiO₂). The QD@SiO₂ were synthesized using a reverse microemulsion method. The average size of the synthesized nanoparticles (NPs) was 51.76 nm, and their quantum yield (QY) was relatively high (36.5%). PSA detection was performed using LFIA on a strip. The QD@SiO₂ surface was modified by conjugating the anti-PSA antibody to detect the PSA. At concentrations above 1.0754 ng/mL, PSA was detected using the designed LFIA system without any nonspecific binding. The proposed QD@SiO₂ has other bioapplications as well.