Awawdeh Kayan, Buttkewitz Marc A, Bahnemann Janina, Segal Ester
Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 320003 Haifa, Israel.
Institute of Technical Chemistry, Leibniz Universität Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany.
Microsyst Nanoeng. 2024 Jul 17;10:100. doi: 10.1038/s41378-024-00738-w. eCollection 2024.
This work presents the development and design of aptasensor employing porous silicon (PSi) Fabry‒Pérot thin films that are suitable for use as optical transducers for the detection of lactoferrin (LF), which is a protein biomarker secreted at elevated levels during gastrointestinal (GI) inflammatory disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease and chronic pancreatitis. To overcome the primary limitation associated with PSi biosensors-namely, their relatively poor sensitivity due to issues related to complex mass transfer phenomena and reaction kinetics-we employed two strategic approaches: First, we sought to optimize the porous nanostructure with respect to factors including layer thickness, pore diameter, and capture probe density. Second, we leveraged convection properties by integrating the resulting biosensor into a 3D-printed microfluidic system that also had one of two different micromixer architectures (i.e., staggered herringbone micromixers or microimpellers) embedded. We demonstrated that tailoring the PSi aptasensor significantly improved its performance, achieving a limit of detection (LOD) of 50 nM-which is >1 order of magnitude lower than that achieved using previously-developed biosensors of this type. Moreover, integration into microfluidic systems that incorporated passive and active micromixers further enhanced the aptasensor's sensitivity, achieving an additional reduction in the LOD by yet another order of magnitude. These advancements demonstrate the potential of combining PSi-based optical transducers with microfluidic technology to create sensitive label-free biosensing platforms for the detection of GI inflammatory biomarkers.
这项工作展示了一种采用多孔硅（PSi）法布里-珀罗薄膜的适配体传感器的开发与设计，该传感器适用于作为检测乳铁蛋白（LF）的光学换能器，乳铁蛋白是一种蛋白质生物标志物，在诸如炎症性肠病和慢性胰腺炎等胃肠道（GI）炎症性疾病期间会以升高的水平分泌。为了克服与PSi生物传感器相关的主要限制，即由于复杂的传质现象和反应动力学问题导致其灵敏度相对较差，我们采用了两种策略方法：第一，我们试图针对包括层厚度、孔径和捕获探针密度等因素优化多孔纳米结构。第二，我们通过将所得的生物传感器集成到一个3D打印的微流体系统中来利用对流特性，该微流体系统还嵌入了两种不同微混合器架构之一（即交错人字形微混合器或微叶轮）。我们证明，定制PSi适配体传感器可显著提高其性能，实现50 nM的检测限（LOD），这比使用先前开发的此类生物传感器所达到的检测限低超过1个数量级。此外，集成到包含被动和主动微混合器的微流体系统中进一步提高了适配体传感器的灵敏度，使检测限又降低了一个数量级。这些进展证明了将基于PSi的光学换能器与微流体技术相结合以创建用于检测GI炎症生物标志物的灵敏无标记生物传感平台的潜力。
