Cerium oxide nanoparticles-assisted aptasensor for chronic myeloid leukaemia detection

Background and purpose: Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) is one of the most lethal types of leukaemia and can rapidly progress if not treated properly. Therefore, having an effective diagnostic strategy is crucial. Various methods are available for diagnosis, including electrochemical biosensors with aptamer bioreceptors.

Experimental approach: In this study, we immobilized the KK1D04 aptamer on a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) supported by CeO₂ nanoparticles (CeO₂NPs) to detect K562 cells, a type of CML cell line. Several parameters were optimized to enhance the aptasensor response using the Box-Behnken experimental design.

Key results: The developed aptasensor demonstrated good performance with a limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) of 16 cells/mL and 3,882 cells/mL, respectively, in the K562 cell concentration range of 10² to 10⁶ cells/mL. The optimum experimental conditions were an aptamer concentration of 0.8 ppm, an aptamer incubation time of 36 minutes, and a K562 aptamer-cell incubation time of 13 minutes. The aptasensor also exhibits selectivity for K562 cells compared to Vero cells, THP1 cells, and Raji cells.

Conclusion: The aptasensor in this study demonstrated the potential to detect K562 cells. These results could contribute to the advancement of point-of-care (POC) devices for the detection of CML.