Assembly of Peptide with Dye Molecules for the Fabrication of Colorimetric Biosensor with Application To Diagnose HER2-Positive Breast Cancer

Peptide has been widely used for sensor design, but signal output and amplification have been challenges for such types of biosensors. In this work, a coassembly strategy has been adopted to fabricate a colorimetric biosensor with simple signal convertor and amplification. Meanwhile, by regulating the coassembly peptosome with optimal size, a sensitive and specific colorimetric biosensor can be fabricated. As a proof-of-concept, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) protein as the target can be specifically bound by the peptosome, and the molecular recognition events can subsequently be turned into visual signal output; thus, HER2 protein can be quantified with a limit of detection (LOD) of 3 ng mL–1. Moreover, experimental results can validate the capability of the biosensor in identifying HER2-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer patients. Therefore, this biosensor may have great potential in the field of biosensor-based in vitro diagnosis.