Ultra-low fouling methylimidazolium modified surfaces for the detection of HER2 in breast cancer cell lysates

We synthesized novel ultra-low fouling ionic liquids and demonstrated their use with surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing for the analysis of HER2 in breast cancer cell lysates. Whilst biomarkers are commonly detected in serum, this remains challenging for cancer diagnosis due to their low concentrations in circulation and in some cases, there is a poor correlation between serum and tissue concentrations. Therefore, a cell lysate constitutes an interesting biosample for cancer diagnosis and typing, which has been largely unexploited for chemical biosensing of cancer biomarkers. However, high fouling of surfaces in contact with the cell lysate and the absence of effective surface chemistry to prevent fouling are currently limiting biomarker analysis in cell lysates. To address this challenge, we report the synthesis of 1-(carboxyalkyl)-3-(12-mercaptododecyl)-1H-imidazolium ionic liquids with different anions (Br−, BF4−, PF6−, ClO4−, and NTf2−) and ethyl and pentyl chains to form monolayers and analyse specific proteins from cell lysates. The most efficient ionic liquid monolayer, 1-(carboxyethyl)-3-(12-mercaptododecyl)-1H-imidazolium bromide, was able to eliminate the nonspecific adsorption (surface coverage of 2 ± 2 ng cm−2) of a concentrated cell lysate (protein concentration of ∼3.5 mg mL−1), which was significantly better than carboxy–PEG (surface coverage of 14 ± 7 ng cm−2), a benchmark monolayer commonly used to reduce nonspecific adsorption. These ionic liquid monolayers were modified with anti-HER2 and the detection of the HER2 breast cancer biomarker was carried out in crude breast cancer cell lysates, as shown with HER2-negative MCF-7 cells spiked with HER2 and with HER2 positive SK-BR-3 cells.