Biosensor for determining average iron content of ferritin by measuring its optical dispersion

Average iron content of ferritin has a potential to serve as a biomarker for early identification of high-risk trauma patients at point-of-care (PoC). Appropriate therapies can then be administered to reduce morbidity and mortality. Currently, protein and iron levels are measured separately using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and UV or atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) respectively, but the use of two completely different methods adds to the complexity and analysis time of the combined measurement. As a result, these methods are unsuitable for PoC analysis. To address this gap, we report a biosensor for measuring the average iron content of ferritin in a single step. The biosensor was based on a dye-doped leaky waveguide (LW), which operates in the entire visible wavelength range, and hence allowed the measurement of differences in the optical dispersion of ferritin and apoferritin to determine the average iron content of the protein. The LW biosensor comprised a 1.54 micron thick mesoporous chitosan slab waveguide with immobilized antibodies against ferritin/apoferritin to measure the optical dispersion of 110 nM protein. Based on the baseline noise, the limit of detection for this method is ∼700 pM for ferritin/apoferritin. The biosensor has a significant potential for PoC measurement of the average iron content of serum ferritin and, in future, the total protein cencentration.