Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been involved in human society as one of the most important cancers. Every day, the number of people suffered from this disease is increased. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) has been used as the most important biomarker for the diagnosis of HCC in various analytical methods. In this study, a modified Au electrode with spindle-shaped gold nanostructure was applied as the transducer in an electrochemical AFP aptasensor. Morphological features of the nanostructure studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The results showed that the size of nanostructure was about 80-200 nm. All electrochemical measurements were followed using a three electrode system and potentiostat/galvanostat device. The aptasensor could detect AFP at the linear range of 0.005 to 10 ng mL(-1) while the limit of detection (LOD) was 0.23 pg mL(-1). In order to find an optimal performance of this aptasensor, reproducibility (relative standard deviation (RSD) = 13.86, n = 5), regeneration (RSD = 1.43, n = 5) and stability (97.56) tests have also performed. The selectivity of this aptasensor was investigated in the presence of most important interfering agents against AFP, and the results showed that these interferences did not have a significant and effective outcome on the detection of this biomarker. Finally, 20 real samples were investigated with enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) as the reference method and then with the aptasensor in the same condition and the found results were compared.