An ecofriendly iron MOF-based immunosensor for sensitive detection of vascular endothelium growth factor in serum of cancer patients

This work demonstrates the potential of an iron-based metal-organic framework, MIL-100(Fe), to effectively modify a multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) screen printed electrode (SPE) for enhanced electrochemical immunosensing of the vascular endothelium growth factor (VEGF), which has been recently considered a promising tumor biomarker. MIL-100(Fe) has been synthetized according to an ecofriendly, sustainable, heatless water-based technique at various synthesis reaction times. The morphological, structural and electrochemical properties of the different samples of MIL-100(Fe) were evaluated using several physical and electrochemical techniques. The MIL-100(Fe) after 48 h owned a crystalline microporous-mesoporous structure, with superior properties, that is larger BET surface area of 1082  18 m2/g, larger pore volume of 0.696 cm3/g and better electroconductivity. After optimizing the experimental conditions, the MIL-100(Fe)48h/MWCNTs/SPE based immunosensor showed a linear range between 100 and 480 pg mL-1, a LOD of 50 pg mL-1 (3s/S), a sensitivity of 0.017 mA mL pg-1, good reproducibility and high selectivity. In addition, the developed immunosensor was applied to satisfactorily detect VEGF in human serum samples of cancer patients, compared to traditional ELISA method. Considering the sustainable and easy fabrication of the proposed platform, it may provide promising application as a point-of-care (PoC) device for VEGF detection for early-stage diagnosis of cancer patients.