In our work, we use the well-acknowledged antibody-antigen
affinity mechanism to quantify extracellular membrane receptors
that are overexpressed in the case of cancer cells [18]. In doing so,
we assess the unique detection and quantification capabilities of
gold-coated TFBGs and evaluate their performances in terms of
both sensitivity and limit of detection (LOD). We have used cells
suspensions to target and detect extracellular membrane receptors
in native membranes of different human epithelial cell lines. A
differential diagnosis has been demonstrated between two cell
lines, with overexpressed membrane receptors (positive control)
and with a low number of these receptors (negative control). Such
results make an important step forward towards the demonstration
of in vivo diagnosis.