Division of Colorectal Surgery, Department of Surgery, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei City 104, Taiwan.
Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Graduate Institute of Biochemical and Biomedical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei City 106, Taiwan.
Sensors (Basel). 2021 May 3;21(9):3183. doi: 10.3390/s21093183.
The screening and diagnosis of cancer are hallmarks of medicine in the aging population. Recently, microRNAs have shown potential for use as biomarkers, which could advance the field of diagnostics. The presence of miRNA-141 in the serum has been well described in several malignancies. However, the invasive approach used for sampling represents the major limitation for its practical application and, hence, its notable absence as a method for screening the general population. In light of this, we aimed to develop a high-sensitivity microRNA (miR) biosensor for application in the diagnosis of all miR-141-associated cancers, such as colorectal cancer (CRC) and breast cancer (BC). The novelty lies in our dual-probe design, which is reliant on the hybridization of the fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) targeting probe onto an existing sample of urinary miR-141 in the first step, followed by complementary binding with a biotinylated probe that has been coated on a modified screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE). The hybridization of the probe and sensor produces signals via the catalytic reduction of HO at HRP-modified SPCEs in the presence of HO, which was measured by either cyclic voltammetry or chronoamperometry (CA) currents. In our study, the detection and expression of miR-141 in a cohort of colorectal cancer ( = 6) and breast cancer ( = 4) samples showed that its levels were significantly higher than in a healthy cohort ( = 9) ( < 0.004). Moreover, our miR sensor demonstrated high stability, reliability, and sensitivity ( < 0.0001). This work hopefully provides new information for the detection and monitoring of de novo and existing cancers.
癌症的筛查和诊断是老龄化人口医学的标志。最近，microRNAs 显示出作为生物标志物的潜力，这可能会推动诊断领域的发展。miR-141 在几种恶性肿瘤中的血清存在已得到很好的描述。然而，用于采样的侵入性方法是其实际应用的主要限制，因此，它作为一种筛查普通人群的方法明显缺失。有鉴于此，我们旨在开发一种高灵敏度的 microRNA（miR）生物传感器，用于诊断所有与 miR-141 相关的癌症，如结直肠癌（CRC）和乳腺癌（BC）。新颖之处在于我们的双探针设计，该设计依赖于荧光素异硫氰酸酯（FITC）靶向探针与尿液中现有的 miR-141 样本在第一步中的杂交，然后与已涂覆在修饰的丝网印刷碳电极（SPCE）上的生物素化探针互补结合。探针和传感器的杂交通过 HRP 修饰的 SPCE 中 HO 的催化还原产生信号，HO 的存在通过循环伏安法或计时安培法（CA）电流进行测量。在我们的研究中，对结直肠癌（=6）和乳腺癌（=4）样本中 miR-141 的检测和表达表明，其水平明显高于健康对照组（=9）（<0.004）。此外，我们的 miR 传感器表现出高稳定性、可靠性和灵敏度（<0.0001）。这项工作有望为新发和现有癌症的检测和监测提供新的信息。
