Potentially a new approach in cancer diagnosis: development of lanthanide-loaded nanoparticle-based biosensors for determining telomerase levels

Abstract A key focus in cancer biomarker research is the quantification of telomerase-related signatures. In this study, we developed Eu 3 ⁺-doped silica nanoparticle immunoprobes for fluorescence-based quantification of telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) protein level as a proof-of-concept nanobiosensing platform. Biocompatible silica nanoparticles were functionalized with N-methacryloyl-L-aspartic acid (MAAsp) and Eu 3 ⁺ to promote ligand-assisted sensitization (antenna effect), followed