Electrochemical Sensing of Galectin-1: A Graphene-Based Strategy for Pancreatic Cancer Biomarker Detection

Pancreatic cancer is the second most extensive leading cancer disease globally, and its mortality rate is closely related to its incidence. Most pancreoductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients remain asymptomatic until cancer reaches its advanced stage, so diagnosing PDAC is of utmost importance. Here, we report the detection of Galectin-1, a potent biomarker for PDAC cancer, on a fabricated immunosensor by CV and DPV approaches. Using the CVD technique, a uniform, homogenous large graphene film has been synthesized on copper foil. Further, the CVD-grown graphene was functionalized using PBSE, which led to the attachment of anti-GAL-1 to make the biosensor-specific for GAL-1. Raman, AFM, XPS, and FT-IR characterized the fabricated biosensor (Cu/Gr/PBSE/anti-GAL-1). The selective and sensitive detection of GAL-1 is achieved by differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) and cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements. For the DPV, the fabricated immunosensor shows a linear response in the physiological range of 1.0-100 ng/ml with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.99 with a limit of detection (LOD) of 2.53 ng/ml. Likewise, for CV measurement, linear response in the 1.0 -120 ng/ml range with LOD of 7.26 ng/ml and correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.99. It has an excellent storage capacity of ~25 days. The fabricated biosensor also checked the sensing performance on human serum sample.