Department of Hematology and Oncology (Key Department of Jiangsu Medicine), Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China.
Nanoscale. 2017 Sep 28;9(37):14111-14117. doi: 10.1039/c7nr04867j.
Barcodes have a demonstrated value for multiplex high-throughput bioassays. The tendency of this technology is to pursue high sensitivity target screening. Herein, we presented a new type of inverse opal-structured poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAM) hydrogel photonic crystal (PhC) barcodes with the function of fluorescent signal self-amplification for the detection. During the bio-reaction process at body temperature, the pNIPAM hydrogel barcodes kept swelling, and their inverse opal structure with interconnected pores provided unblocked channels for the targets to diffuse into the voids of the barcodes and react. During the detection process, the barcodes were kept at a volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) to shrink their volume; this resulted in an obvious increase in the density of fluorescent molecules and signal amplification. It was demonstrated that the responsive barcodes could achieve the limits of detection (LOD) of α-fetoprotein (AFP) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) at 0.623 ng mL and 0.492 ng mL, respectively. In addition, the proposed barcodes showed good multiplex detection capacity with acceptable cross-reactivity, accuracy, and reproducibility, and the results were consistent with those of common clinical laboratory methods for the detection of clinical samples. These features of the inverse opal-structured responsive hydrogel barcodes indicate that they are ideal technology for high-sensitive multiplex bioassays.
条码在高通量生物测定的多重检测中具有明显的价值。这项技术的趋势是追求高灵敏度的目标筛选。在这里，我们提出了一种新型的具有荧光信号自增强功能的具有反蛋白石结构的聚（N-异丙基丙烯酰胺）（pNIPAM）水凝胶光子晶体（PhC）条码，用于检测。在体温下的生物反应过程中，pNIPAM 水凝胶条码保持膨胀，其具有互连通孔的反蛋白石结构为目标物扩散到条码的空隙中并发生反应提供了畅通无阻的通道。在检测过程中，条码保持在体积相变温度（VPTT）以缩小其体积；这导致荧光分子的密度明显增加，信号得到放大。结果表明，响应条码可以分别实现对甲胎蛋白（AFP）和癌胚抗原（CEA）的检测限（LOD）为 0.623ng/mL 和 0.492ng/mL。此外，所提出的条码具有良好的多重检测能力，具有可接受的交叉反应性、准确性和重现性，并且检测临床样本的结果与常见的临床实验室方法一致。这种具有反蛋白石结构的响应性水凝胶条码的特性表明，它们是高灵敏度多重生物测定的理想技术。
