Herein, a simple, novel, and cost-effective biosensor array is developed for the differentiation of carrier proteins (i.e. human serum albumin (HSA), bovine serum albumin (BSA), transferrin (TRF), immunoglobulin G (IgG), fibrinogen (Fb) and casein (Cas) based on fading nanocurcumin in alkaline solutions. We found that the carrier proteins show different inhibitory effects with diverse extents on the alkaline decomposition of nanocurcumin. In the other words, in the presence of carrier proteins, the biosensor array produces fingerprint-like absorbance patterns to identify each carrier protein. The absorbance patterns of this biosensor array can be analyzed by linear discrimination analysis (LDA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). The six carrier proteins have been well discriminated in different concentrations levels. Furthermore, complex mixtures of HSA and TRF with a total concentration of 25 μM and different mole ratios are also discriminated without errors. Also, the HSA as an example of carrier proteins has been well determined in the range of 5–75 μM. The results revealed that the biosensor array shows high selectivity to the carrier proteins in the presence of other interfering substances. The analytical performance of the biosensor array is examined by the differentiation of carrier proteins in human urine and serum biofluids. It should be noted that the biosensor array is very simple, label-free, and selective, and only restricted sensor elements are required for attaining a high differentiation capability of carrier proteins.
