Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Analyst. 2020 Jul 7;145(13):4587-4594. doi: 10.1039/d0an00193g. Epub 2020 May 21.
MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play an important role in the regulation of biological processes and have demonstrated great potential as biomarkers for the early detection of various diseases, including esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and Barrett's esophagus (BE), the premalignant metaplasia associated with EAC. Herein, we demonstrate the direct detection of the esophageal cancer biomarker, miR-21, in RNA extracted from 17 endoscopic tissue biopsies using the nanophotonics technology our group has developed, termed the inverse molecular sentinel (iMS) nanobiosensor, with surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) detection. The potential of this label-free, homogeneous biosensor for cancer diagnosis without the need for target amplification was demonstrated by discriminating esophageal cancer and Barrett's esophagus from normal tissue with notable diagnostic accuracy. This work establishes the potential of the iMS nanobiosensor for cancer diagnostics via miRNA detection in clinical samples without the need for target amplification, validating the potential of this assay as part of a new diagnostic strategy. Combining miRNA diagnostics with the nanophotonics technology will result in a paradigm shift in achieving a general molecular analysis tool that has widespread applicability for cancer research as well as detection of cancer. We anticipate further development of this technique for future use in point-of-care testing as an alternative to histopathological diagnosis as our method provides a quick result following RNA isolation, allowing for timely treatment.
微小 RNA（miRNA）在生物过程的调控中发挥着重要作用，并且已经证明作为各种疾病（包括食管腺癌（EAC）和巴雷特食管（BE），EAC 相关的癌前化生）的早期检测生物标志物具有巨大的潜力。在此，我们使用我们小组开发的纳米光子学技术，即反向分子哨兵（iMS）纳米生物传感器，并结合表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）检测，直接检测从 17 个内镜组织活检中提取的 RNA 中的食管癌生物标志物 miR-21。这种无需靶标扩增的无标记、均相生物传感器对癌症诊断的潜力，通过区分食管癌和巴雷特食管与正常组织的显著诊断准确性得到了证明。这项工作通过 miRNA 检测在临床样本中建立了 iMS 纳米生物传感器进行癌症诊断的潜力，而无需靶标扩增，验证了该检测方法作为新诊断策略的一部分的潜力。将 miRNA 诊断与纳米光子学技术相结合，将导致实现广泛适用于癌症研究以及癌症检测的通用分子分析工具的范式转变。我们预计该技术将进一步发展，以便将来在即时护理测试中替代组织病理学诊断，因为我们的方法在 RNA 分离后提供了快速的结果，从而可以及时进行治疗。
