A liquid crystal-decorated aptasensing gadget for rapid monitoring of A549 cells: Future portable test kit for lung cancer diagnosis.

Background: Presented here is a straightforward detection system designed to track non-small cell lung cancer (specifically A549 cells) using a combination of liquid crystals (LCs) and aptamer sequences, marking a pioneering approach in this field. A change in the alignment of LCs from perpendicular to random status by the aptamer-cell complex altered the murky polarized background of the aptasensor to multicolored.

Results: The LC-designed aptasensor could determine A549 cancerous cells in the range of 2.0E+01-7.0E+07 cell mL with a limit of detection (LOD) as low as 10 cell mL. Through precise quantification of A549 cells in human serum samples diluted 20 times, with recovery rates ranging from 97.59 % to 101.31 %, the suggested aptasensor proves to be a dependable method for cancer screening. Furthermore, the LC aptasensor was identified as a fast sensing array due to a 10-min incubation period for the aptamer-cell complexation.

Significance: The LC aptasensor is label-free, operator-independent, low-cost, sensitive, and user-friendly, making it potent as a miniaturized portable sensing chip for efficient healthcare monitoring.