Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), as one of the most lethal
cancers, significantly impacts human health. Attempts in this area tends to develop novel technologies with sensitive and multiplexed detection properties for early diagnosis. Here, we present novel
hydrogel photonic crystal (PhC) barcodes with
tyramine deposition amplified
enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for highly sensitive and multiplexed HCC
biomarker screening. Because of the abundant amino groups of
acrylic acid (AA) component, the constructed
hydrogel PhC barcodes with inverse opal structure could facilitate the loading of antibody probes for subsequent detection of
tumor markers. By integrating
tyramine deposition amplified ELISA on the barcode, the detection signal of
tumor markers has been enhanced. Based on these features, it is demonstrated that the
hydrogel PhC barcodes with
tyramine deposition amplified ELISA could realize highly sensitive and multiplexed detection of HCC-related
biomarkers. It was found that this method is flexible, sensitive and accurate, suitable for multivariate analysis of low abundance
tumor markers and future
cancer diagnosis. These features make the newly developed PhC barcodes an innovation platform, which possesses tremendous potential for practical application of low abundance targets.