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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Quantum-enhanced biosensing for early detection of neurodegenerative disorders

Innocent Ojeba Musa1* ,  Miracle Uwa Livinus2 ,  Mustapha Abdulsalam1 ,  Stephen Olaide Aremu3 ,  Sunday Zeal Bala4 ,  Madinat Hassan5,6,7 ,  Shehu Sani8 ,  Job Oloruntoba Samuel9 ,  Adamu Mustapha9 ,  Abioye Olabisi Peter10 ,  Helen Auta Shnada9 ,  Jeremiah David Bala9 ,  Imam Muzeenat Oyinkansola11 ,  Katimu Yusuf12 ,  Amirah Abdulrahman13
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1 Department of Microbiology, Skyline University Nigeria, Kano, Nigeria
2 Department of Biochemistry, Skyline University Nigeria, Kano, Nigeria
3 Department of Medicine Surgery, Faculty of General Medicine, Siberian State Medical University, Tomsk, Siberia, Russian Federation
4 Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Princess Anne, Maryland, United States of America
5 Foresight Institute of Research and Translation (FIRAT), Kigali, Rwanda
6 Khayr Cancer Health Initiative (KCHI), Kaduna State, Nigeria
7 Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Kaduna State, Nigeria
8 Department of Community Health, School of Public Health, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
9 Department of Microbiology, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria
10 Department of Public Health, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, Nigeria
11 Department of Medicine and Surgery, Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria
12 Department of Microbiology, Federal University Gashua, Gashua, Yobe State, Nigeria
13 Department of Medicine and Surgery, Gombe State University, Gombe, Nigeria
JCTR, 025440076 https://doi.org/10.36922/JCTR025440076
Received: 28 October 2025 | Revised: 8 April 2026 | Accepted: 18 June 2026 | Published online: 2 July 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Background: Early detection of neurodegenerative diseases is an important and unmet clinical need because traditional assays are not sensitive enough to detect low concentrations of biomarkers at the prodromal stages. Objective: This study presents a novel biosensing system based on quantum measurement principles and biomolecular recognition to achieve ultrasensitive detection of biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) in patient samples. Methods: We developed a hybrid sensor that uses antibody-functionalized nanostructures for selective biomarker capture and nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond for quantum spin-based readout. The performance was evaluated against standard fluorescence immunoassays of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma collected from a clinical cohort (n = 120; 60 AD/PD, 60 controls) in endogenous amyloid-β42 (Aβ42), phosphorylated tau (p-tau181), and α-synuclein. Results: The quantum-enhanced platform detection limits of 12.6 fM for Aβ42, 15.8 fM for p-tau181, and 18.2 fM for α-synuclein are 150–300-fold better than enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The signal-to-noise ratio increased by ~22 dB, within the quantum-limited scaling. Diagnostic accuracy was high, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve ranging from 0.94 to 0.96, superior to ELISA (0.72–0.81). In addition to sensitivity, analytical validation has excellent reproducibility (intra-assay coefficient of variation [CV] ≤ 7.5%, inter-assay CV ≤ 10.8%), high recovery in patients’ plasma and CSF (92–105%), low cross-reactivity (<3%), and a stable sensor performance of seven days of storage. Multiplexed detection reduced the sample volume by 60% and the assay turnaround time by more than threefold compared to ELISA. Conclusion: Quantum-enhanced biosensing is a powerful diagnostic method for detecting biomarkers at clinically relevant concentrations, providing a scalable, noninvasive approach to early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases in affected populations. Relevance for patients: Clinical implementation of quantum biosensing has the potential to enable pre-symptomatic disease detection, facilitating earlier therapeutic intervention and improved disease management.

Keywords
Alzheimer’s disease
Early diagnosis
Neurodegenerative disorders
Nitrogen-vacancy centers
Parkinson’s disease
Quantum biosensing
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests related to this work.
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Journal of Clinical and Translational Research, Electronic ISSN: 2424-810X Print ISSN: 2382-6533, Published by AccScience Publishing
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