Graphene oxide-gold nanoparticles hybrids-based surface plasmon resonance for sensitive detection of microRNA

In this study, a simple and sensitive surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor for miRNA detection was developed using graphene oxide-gold nanoparticles (GO-AuNPs) hybrids as signal amplification element. Taking advantage of the GO-AuNPs hybrids and their enhanced performance in SPR biosensors, the detection of miRNA was carried out in only two steps. Firstly, the thiolated capture DNA probe with a short complete complementary sequence was immobilized on the Au film surface to recognize the part sequence of target miRNA. Subsequently, the assistant DNA-linked GO-AuNPs hybrids were employed to bind the other section of the target. It was found that the developed SPR biosensor was able to achieve a detection limit as low as 1 fM. Moreover, the method showed excellent ability to discriminate differences among miRNA-200 family members. Notably, human miRNA from cancer cells could also be detected, and the results were in excellent agreement with the ones obtained using qRT-PCR. On the basis of these findings, we believe that this method has great potential for quantitative detection of miRNA in biomedical research and early clinical diagnostics. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.