Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is known to play a critical role in the progression of inflammatory diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, sepsis, viral infection, neurological disease, and autoimmune diseases. Emerging diagnostic and prognostic tools, such as optical nanosensors, experience challenges in translation to the clinic in part due to protein corona formation, dampening their selectivity and sensitivity. To address this problem, we explored the rational screening of several classes of biomolecules to be employed as agents in noncovalent surface passivation as a strategy to screen interference from nonspecific proteins. Findings from this screening were applied to the detection of IL-6 by a fluorescent-antibody-conjugated single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT)-based nanosensor. The IL-6 nanosensor exhibited highly sensitive and specific detection after passivation with a polymer, poly-l-lysine, as demonstrated by IL-6 detection in human serum within a clinically relevant range of 25 to 25,000 pg/mL, exhibiting a limit of detection over 3 orders of magnitude lower than prior antibody-conjugated SWCNT sensors. This work holds potential for the rapid and highly sensitive detection of IL-6 in clinical settings with future application to other cytokines or disease-specific biomarkers.

中文翻译：

---

光学纳米传感器钝化可高灵敏地检测炎症细胞因子 Interleukin-6

众所周知，白介素 6 (IL-6) 在心血管疾病、癌症、败血症、病毒感染、神经系统疾病和自身免疫性疾病等炎症性疾病的进展中发挥着关键作用。新兴的诊断和预后工具，例如光学纳米传感器，在转化为临床时遇到了挑战，部分原因是蛋白质电晕的形成，削弱了它们的选择性和灵敏度。为了解决这个问题，我们探索了合理筛选几类用作非共价表面钝化剂的生物分子，作为筛选非特异性蛋白质干扰的策略。此次筛选的结果被应用于通过基于荧光抗体缀合的单壁碳纳米管 (SWCNT) 的纳米传感器检测 IL-6。 IL-6 纳米传感器在用聚合物聚-L-赖氨酸钝化后表现出高度灵敏和特异性的检测，如人血清中 IL-6 检测所证明的那样，其临床相关范围为 25 至 25,000 pg/mL，表现出的限制为检测结果比之前的抗体偶联 SWCNT 传感器低 3 个数量级以上。这项工作有望在临床环境中快速、高灵敏度地检测 IL-6，并在未来应用于其他细胞因子或疾病特异性生物标志物。