Assaying biomarkers via real-time measurements of the effective relaxation time of biofunctionalized magnetic nanoparticles associated with biotargets

An assay of biomarkers consisting of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is reported. Real-time measurements of the effective relaxation time τ eff, when the biofunctionalized magnetic nanoparticles (BMNs) were conjugating with biotargets, were made. The BMNs are anti-alpha-fetoprotein (antiAFP) coated onto dextran-coated iron oxide nanoparticles labeled as Fe₃O₄-antiAFP. It was found that the effective relaxation time, τ eff, increases as the association of AFP and Fe₃O₄-antiAFP evolves. We attribute this to the enhanced Brownian motion of BMNs when magnetic clusters are present during the conjugation. We found that saturation magnetization, M s, increases when the concentration of AFP increases. This is due to the fact that more magnetic clusters are associated in the reagent, and therefore the M s increases when the concentration of AFP increases. The change of effective relaxation time and saturation magnetization shows a behavior of logistic function, which provides a foundation for assaying an unknown amount of biomolecules. Thus, we demonstrate sensitive platforms for detecting AFP by characterizing τ eff. The detection platform is robust and easy to use and shows promise for further use in assaying a broad number of biomarkers.