A real time detection of the ovarian tumor associated antigen 1 (OVTA 1) in human serum by quartz crystal microbalance immobilized with anti-OVTA 1 polyclonal chicken IgY antibodies

Abstract In this study, we developed a sensitive quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor which employs the anti-ovarian tumor associated antigen 1 (OVTA 1) IgY polyclonal chicken antibodies on the crystal surface for the detection of OVTA 1 in human serum. The anti-OVTA 1 IgY antibodies were anchored on the thiol-activated sensor surface using 1-ethyl-3[3-dimethylaminopropyl] carbodiimide hydrochloride/ N -hydroxysuccinimide (EDC–NHS) coupling. The responses for different concentrations of anti-OVTA 1 antibody were also studied and 40 μg/mL was favorable for homogenous antibody coverage. The QCM sensor was used to monitor both immobilization and the target binding affinity. The anti-OVTA 1 antibody based QCM has allowed the competent detection of OVTA 1 in a high linear range of 0.5–10 μg/mL. The total time needed to complete the detection was as short as 5–6 h. The regeneration studies demonstrated that the proposed sensor was reusable up to 9 cycles with a slight loss in binding affinity. The detection of OVTA 1 in human serum allows a potential exploitation of the anti-OVTA 1 polyclonal antibody based QCM immunoassay for the screening of OVTA 1 antigen.