Sensitive detection of CD147/EMMPRIN and its expression on cancer cells with electrochemical technique

Cluster of differentiation 147 (CD147), also known as extracellular matrix metalloproteinase inducer (EMMPRIN), plays an essential role in tumor progression and metastasis, the expression of which on cell surface is a critical clinical testing index for cancer therapy. In this work, an electrochemical method to assay CD147/EMMPRIN expression on tumor cell surface is proposed. While the oxidation of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) catalyzed by horseradish peroxidase (HRP) can be employed for electrochemical measurement, the signal enhancement amplified by gold nanoparticles (GNPs) can be also utilized in this study. Therefore, under optimized conditions, the fabricated biosensor responds linearly to the CD147/EMMPRIN concentration from 125 to 1000 pg/mL with a detection limit as low as 52 pg/mL. High sensitivity can also be achieved for the quantification of breast cancer cells in a linear range from 6.2×104 to 6.25×105 cells/mL. Moreover, the CD147/EMMPRIN expressed on a single breast cancer cell can be calculated as 2.57×104 molecules/cell. The proposed strategy in this study is considerably potential for monitoring the dynamic protein expression on cancer cells and for the effective cancer diagnosis and treatment in the future.