Breaking Through Bead-Supported Assay: Integration of Optical Tweezers Assisted Fluorescence Imaging and Luminescence Confined Upconversion Nanoparticles Triggered Luminescent Resonance Energy Transfer (LRET)

Anal Chem. 2019 Jun 18;91(12):7950-7957. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b01941. Epub 2019 May 31.

Abstract

Herein, a conceptual approach for significantly enhancing a bead-supported assay is proposed. For the fluorescence imaging technology, optical tweezers are introduced to overcome the fluid viscosity interference and immobilize a single tested bead at the laser focus to guarantee a fairly precise imaging condition. For the selection of fluorescent materials and the signal acquisition means, a type of innovative luminescence confined upconversion nanoparticle with a unique sandwich structure is specially designed to act as an efficient energy donor to trigger the luminescent resonance energy transfer (LRET) process. By further combining the double breakthrough with a molecular beacon model, the newly developed detection strategy allows for achieving a pretty high LRET ratio (≈ 88%) to FAM molecules and offering sound assay performance toward miRNA analysis with a detection limit as low as the sub-fM level, and is capable of well identifying single-base mismatching. Besides, this approach not only is able to accurately qualify the low-abundance targets from as few as 30 cancer cells but also can be employed as a valid cancer early warning tool for performing liquid biopsy.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer / methods*
  • Humans
  • Luminescence*
  • Microspheres*
  • Nanoparticles / chemistry*
  • Oleic Acid / analysis
  • Optical Imaging / methods*
  • Optical Tweezers*

Substances

  • Oleic Acid