Upconversion nanoparticle as elemental tag for the determination of alpha-fetoprotein in human serum by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) have received increasing attention due to their unique optical properties. Recognizing that UCNPs are lanthanide-doped nanoparticles, we incorporated UCNPs into an immunoassay with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) detection for the determination of specific proteins, e.g., alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). The sensitivity of the assay was enhanced because of the ICP-MS detection of UCNPs that contained large numbers of lanthanide elemental tags. Conjugates of UCNPs and antibodies were prepared and the morphology of the conjugates was characterized by transmission electron microscopy. After a sandwich immunoreaction, the AFP was determined by the ICP-MS analysis of UCNPs. Under the optimized conditions, a limit of detection (3σ) of 0.31 ng mL−1 based on 89Y signal and 0.22 ng mL−1 based on 174Yb signal was obtained for AFP, with a dynamic range of 0.5–35 ng mL−1 and a relative standard deviation of 4.8% (c = 5 ng mL−1, n = 9). The developed method was applied to the determination of AFP in human serum and the recovery for the spiked sample was in the range of 98.6–123%. The proposed method is simple, rapid, selective and sensitive, and has a good tolerance for the complex biological matrix, indicating great potential for the application of UCNP in biological research as an elemental tag.