Simultaneous dual-targeted monitoring of breast cancer circulating miRNA via surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers globally. Because the 5-year survival rate of breast cancer greatly increases when treated in its initial stage, the importance of early detection has been increasing. Herein, one-spot multiple breast cancer circulating microRNA (miRNA) detection via surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with seed-mediated grown Ag nanopillars (SMGAPs) is described. The electrochemical reduction on the pre-distributed 40 nm gold nanoparticle seeds (sGNP) acted as scaffolds for silver ion growth, and a nanopillar-shaped silver structure was successfully grown on the gold substrate surface. The synthesized structure showed uniform and remarkably increased signal enhancement for malachite green isothiocyanate. Based on this consistency, two circulating miRNA markers for breast cancer (miR-21 and miR-155) were used as the SERS diagnostic target. The limit of detection (LOD) of each labeled target was 451 zmol and 1.65 amol respectively. Moreover, miRNAs in four types of cancer cell extracts (HCC1143, HCC1954, MDA-MB-231, MCF-7) were sorted by miR-21 and miR-155 copies. Finally, quantitative analysis of miRNA in urine was successful compared to that in the healthy group.

Automated summary

Breast cancer is a common global cancer, and early detection is crucial for improving the 5-year survival rate. In this study, the combination of seed-mediated grown silver nanopillars and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy was used for rapid and sensitive detection of circulating miRNA in breast cancer.