A facile surface enhanced Raman scattering-colorimetric dual-mode sensor based on epitope molecularly imprinted polymer for diverse assay of carcinoembryonic antigen.

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a key serum biomarker in colon cancer early screening. Herein, we established a surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-colorimetric dual-mode sensor for CEA assay by employing Au nanostar@Ag@Pt (AuNS@Ag@Pt) nanonzyme as the signaling element. Epitope molecularly imprinted polymer based on host-guest interaction (hg-EMIP) was developed as the recognition element with the merits of high specificity and reusability. This hg-EMIP-based SERS-colorimetric dual-mode sensor offers reliable multi-signal output, sensitive and rapid detection of CEA. The developed method was successfully assessed through CEA measurement in human serum samples from healthy individuals and colon cancer patients, indicating its great practical potential for biomarker detection.