Synthetic Biology and Bioengineering Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea.
School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan 44919, Republic of Korea.
Anal Chem. 2020 Apr 21;92(8):5750-5755. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b05043. Epub 2020 Apr 2.
Although microRNA (miRNA) expression levels provide important information regarding disease states owing to their unique dysregulation patterns in tissues, translation of miRNA diagnostics into point-of-care (POC) settings has been limited by practical challenges. Here, we developed a hydrogel-based microfluidic platform for colorimetric profiling of miRNAs, without the use of complex external equipment for fluidics and imaging. For sensitive and reliable measurement without the risk of sequence bias, we employed a gold deposition-based signal amplification scheme and dark-field imaging, and seamlessly integrated a previously developed miRNA assay scheme into this platform. The assay demonstrated a limit of detection of 260 fM, along with multiplexing of small panels of miRNAs in healthy and cancer samples. We anticipate this versatile platform to facilitate a broad range of POC profiling of miRNAs in cancer-associated dysregulation with high-confidence by exploiting the unique features of hydrogel substrate in an on-chip format and colorimetric analysis.
尽管 microRNA (miRNA) 的表达水平因其在组织中的独特失调模式而提供了有关疾病状态的重要信息，但由于实际挑战的限制，miRNA 诊断的转化为即时护理 (POC) 设置一直受到限制。在这里，我们开发了一种基于水凝胶的微流控平台，用于 miRNA 的比色分析，而无需使用复杂的外部设备进行流体和成像。为了进行灵敏可靠的测量，而又不冒序列偏倚的风险，我们采用了基于金沉积的信号放大方案和暗场成像，并将之前开发的 miRNA 检测方案无缝集成到该平台中。该检测方法的检测限为 260 fM，同时还可以对健康和癌症样本中的小面板 miRNA 进行多重检测。我们预计，通过利用水凝胶基质在芯片格式和比色分析中的独特特性，这种多功能平台将能够以高置信度在癌症相关失调中广泛进行 POC 分析。
