Quantitative and Specific Detection of Exosomal miRNAs for Accurate Diagnosis of Breast Cancer Using a Surface‐Enhanced Raman Scattering Sensor Based on Plasmonic Head‐Flocked Gold Nanopillars

Abstract

MicroRNAs in exosomes (exosomal miRNAs) have attracted increased attention as cancer biomarkers for early diagnosis and prognosis owing to their stability in body fluids. Since strong association exists between exosomal miRNA expression levels and breast cancer, the development of effective methods that can monitor exosomal miRNA expression both over broad concentration ranges and in ultralow amounts is critical. Here, a surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)‐based sensing platform is developed for the quantitative determination of exosomal miRNAs. Ultrasensitive exosomal miRNA detection with single‐nucleotide specificity is obtained from enhanced SERS signals from a uniform plasmonic head‐flocked gold nanopillar substrate, which generates multiple hotspots and enables hybridization between short oligonucleotides, i.e., miRNAs and locked nucleic acid probes. The proposed SERS sensor shows an extremely low detection limit without any amplification process, a wide dynamic range (1 am to 100 nm), multiplex sensing capability and sound miRNA recovery in serum. Furthermore, this sensor allows reliable observation of exosomal miRNA expression patterns from breast cancer cell lines and can discriminate breast cancer subtype based on the difference between these patterns. The results suggest that this sensor can be used for universal cancer diagnosis and further biomedical applications through the quantitative measurement of exosomal miRNAs in bodily fluids.

miR-452 Reverses Abnormal Glycosylation Modification of ERα and Estrogen Resistance in TNBC (Triple-Negative Breast Cancer) Through Targeting UGT1A1

“…Many studies have shown that microRNAs were associated with pathogenesis in different forms of tumors (45)(46)(47)(48). Therefore, further comparison and analysis of the microRNA expression profiles among TNBC patients' tumor tissues and their control tissues adjacent to cancer, or other types of breast cancer tumor specimens and normal control breast tissues were conducted.…”

Cancer Diagnosis through SERS and Other Related Techniques

“…This powerful strategy can be applied to the detection from smaller biomarkers until tissue exemplars. For example, Lee et al (Figure 4A), developed a SERS-based sensor for quantitative detection of exosomal miRNA in serum samples of breast cancer patients [39]. Hybrid structure consists in a head-flocked gold nanopillar substrate functionalized with a specific locked nucleic acid (LNA) probes for capturing miR-21, miR-222, and miR-200c added in known concentrations to human serum.…”

“…Finally, the novelty provided by Lee et al [39] consists in a dispositive able to detect two kinds of biomarkers simultaneously: CTCs and DNA. They developed a dual-function nanodevice for capturing nasopharyngeal CTCs and detecting Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA from plasma samples with a LOD of 10 −13 M [37].…”

Progress on Structured Biosensors for Monitoring Aflatoxin B1 From Biofilms: A Review

“…Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is an extension of the spectroscopic method developed on the basis of Raman spectra and metal nanoparticles (AuNPs or AgNPs) (Lee et al, 2019;Yu B.R. et al, 2019).…”