Head and neck cancer is a heterogeneous disease, originating in the squamous cells lining the larynx (voice box), mouth, pharynx (throat), nasal cavity and salivary glands. Head and neck cancer diagnosis at the later stage is greatly influencing the survival rate of the patient. It makes a mandatory situation to identify this cancer at the earlier stages of development with a suitable biomarker. Squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag) is a circulating serum tumour biomarker, and the elevated level has been found in the head and neck cancer patients and highly correlated with the tumour volume. The present research was carried out to detect and quantify the level of SCC-Ag on titanium oxide (TiO2)-modified interdigitated electrode sensor (IDE) by SCC-Ag antibody. The detection of SCC-Ag was found at the level of 100 fM, while it was improved to 10 fM when the antibody was conjugated with gold nanostar, representing a 10-fold improvement. Interestingly, this enhancement in sensitivity is 1000-folds higher than other substrates. Moreover, the specificity analysis was carried out using two different control proteins and noticed that the antibody only recognised SCC-Ag, indicating the specific detection on IDE-TiO2 sensing surface.

中文翻译：

---

氧化钛传感表面上头颈癌的纳米检测。

头颈癌是一种异质性疾病，起源于喉部（语音盒），口腔，咽部（咽喉），鼻腔和唾液腺内衬的鳞状细胞。晚期头颈癌的诊断极大地影响了患者的存活率。使用合适的生物标记物在发展的早期阶段鉴定这种癌症是强制性的情况。鳞状细胞癌抗原（SCC-Ag）是循环中的血清肿瘤生物标志物，在头颈癌患者中发现了升高的水平，并且与肿瘤体积高度相关。本研究旨在通过SCC-Ag抗体检测和量化氧化钛（TiO2）修饰的叉指电极传感器（IDE）上的SCC-Ag水平。发现SCC-Ag的水平为100 fM，当将抗体与金纳米星偶联时，它提高到10 fM，代表提高了10倍。有趣的是，这种灵敏度的提高是其他基材的1000倍。此外，使用两种不同的对照蛋白进行了特异性分析，发现该抗体仅识别SCC-Ag，表明在IDE-TiO2传感表面上进行了特异性检测。