Development of a Sol-gel-assisted Reverse-phase Microarray Platform for Simple and Rapid Detection of Prostate-specific Antigen from Serum

A sol-gel-based reverse-phase microarray was developed with improved sensitivity for prostatespecific antigen (PSA) from serum. The pore-sizecontrolled 3D sol-gel matrix was created with a large surface area to capture target molecules densely. Using the optically active sol-gel nanocomposites, human female serum was spiked with PSA and assessed using the reverse-phase protein microarray. The reverse-phase assay exhibited a limit of detection of 1 pg/mL for PSA and a dynamic range of 10³ orders of magnitude. Notably, the platform matched the demand of the immunoassay in a simple and feasible manner. Moreover, the platform shortened the total assay time with an increased accuracy of diagnosis.