Clinic Applications in Assaying Ultra-Low-Concentration Bio-Markers Using HTS SQUID-Based AC Magnetosusceptometer

The HTS superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID) magnetometers meets the requirement for the early-stage or hard-to-detect in-vitro diagnosis because of its ultrahigh sensitivity. For example, the demand for assaying the ultra-low-concentration biomarkers of tumors is always existing. It would be better to quantitatively detect the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) at the concentration of 1 pg/ml for diagnosing the early-stage malignancy. In this work, by using the HTS SQUID-based ac magnetosusceptometer and biofunctionalized magnetic nanoparticles, the low-detection limit for VEGF is sub-pg/ml. Furthermore, the clear difference in the VEGF concentrations in sera was found between normal people and tumor patients. Another example to demonstrate the high sensitivity and high specificity of the immunoassay based on the HTS SQUID ac magnetosusceptometer is the detection of biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease. The biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease in plasma are very rare (around 1–100 pg/ml). It is hardly possible to assay the biomarkers in plasma. Here, it has been demonstrated that the HTS SQUID ac magnetosusceptometer can detect the biomarkers at very low concentrations (
$\sim$
1 pg/ml). Through the assays on the biomarkers in plasma of more than 100 people, the clinical accuracy is almost 90%. These results show the niches of clinical applications using the HTS SQUID ac magnetosusceptometer.