Erbereli Camila, Volpe Jaqueline, Maia Nicole, de Andrade Hélida Monteiro, Martins Liline, do Monte Semiramis Jamil Hadad, Brandão Rafael, Silva Adalberto, Kubota Lauro Tatsuo, Souto Dênio
Laboratório de Eletroquímica, Eletroanálise e Desenvolvimento de Sensores, Institute of Chemistry, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP 13083-970, Brazil.
Laboratório de Espectrometria, Sensores e Biossensores - Department of Chemistry, Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, PR 81530-900, Brazil.
ACS Infect Dis. 2025 Sep 12;11(9):2457-2465. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.5c00315. Epub 2025 Aug 2.
Cryptococcosis is a severe fungal infection, particularly in immunosuppressed individuals, causing over 112,000 HIV-related deaths annually. Early and accurate diagnosis is critical, but current methods often lack the necessary sensitivity, specificity, and accessibility for point-of-care use. A major challenge is identifying highly specific bioreceptors for detecting -specific antibodies. This study addresses these diagnostic limitations by developing a novel biosensing approach. While biosensor technology holds significant promise for rapid, sensitive, and selective responses in healthcare, effective solutions for cryptococcosis, particularly antibody detection, remain challenging. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique was employed as the transduction system for constructing the biosensor. A new synthetic multiepitope protein, called protein D, was evaluated as a bioreceptor for developing an SPR immunosensor. Protein D is a chimeric protein composed of five different peptides (H18, H21, H26, S4, and Hy49) linked in specific combinations. The proposed SPR immunosensor presented limits of detection (LOD) of 0.1 μg mL and quantification (LOQ) of 0.5 μg mL. Analysis of human sera was performed with high selectivity and reproducibility, effectively discriminating between individuals with and without cryptococcosis. To date, no plasmonic immunosensing system has been reported for detecting fungal antibodies in human serum. In brief, this study successfully demonstrated the viability of a synthetic multiepitope protein in an SPR immunosensor for the serological diagnosis of cryptococcosis.
隐球菌病是一种严重的真菌感染，尤其在免疫抑制个体中，每年导致超过11.2万例与艾滋病相关的死亡。早期准确诊断至关重要，但目前的方法往往缺乏即时检测所需的灵敏度、特异性和可及性。一个主要挑战是识别用于检测特异性抗体的高特异性生物受体。本研究通过开发一种新型生物传感方法来解决这些诊断局限性。虽然生物传感器技术在医疗保健中具有快速、灵敏和选择性响应的巨大潜力，但针对隐球菌病的有效解决方案，尤其是抗体检测，仍然具有挑战性。表面等离子体共振（SPR）技术被用作构建生物传感器的传感系统。一种名为蛋白D的新型合成多表位蛋白被评估为用于开发SPR免疫传感器的生物受体。蛋白D是一种嵌合蛋白，由五种不同的肽（H18、H21、H26、S4和Hy49）以特定组合连接而成。所提出的SPR免疫传感器的检测限（LOD）为0.1μg/mL，定量限（LOQ）为0.5μg/mL。对人血清的分析具有高选择性和可重复性，能够有效地区分患有和未患有隐球菌病的个体。迄今为止，尚未有报道称等离子体免疫传感系统可用于检测人血清中的真菌抗体。简而言之，本研究成功证明了合成多表位蛋白在SPR免疫传感器中用于隐球菌病血清学诊断的可行性。
