Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor for Sensitive Detection of HER2-positive Exosomes Based on Reformative Tyramine Signal Amplification Activated by Molecular Aptamer Beacon Conversion

Abstract

HER2-positive exosomes play an extremely important role in the diagnosis and treatment options of breast cancers. Herein, based on the reformative tyramine signal amplification (TSA) enabled by molecular aptamer beacon (MAB) conversion, a label-free surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor was proposed for highly sensitive and specific detection of HER2-positive exosomes. The exosomes were captured by the HER2 aptamer region of MAB immobilized on the chip surface, which enabled the exposure of the G4 DNA that could form peroxidase-like G4-hemin. In turn, the formed G4-hemin catalyzed the deposition of plentiful tyramine-coated AuNPs (AuNPs-Ty) on the exosome membrane with the help of H2O2, generating significantly enhanced SPR signal. In the reformative TSA system, the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) as a major component was replaced with nonenzymic G4-hemin, bypassing the defects of nature enzymes. Moreover, the dual-recognition of the surface proteins and lipid membrane of the desired exosomes endowed the sensing strategy with high specificity without the interruption of free proteins. As a result, this developed SPR biosensor exhibited a wide linear range from 1.0 × 104 to 1.0 × 107 particles/mL. Importantly, this strategy was able to accurately distinguish HER2-positive breast cancer patients from healthy individuals, exhibiting great potential clinical application.