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Distance-based quantification of miRNA-21 by the coffee-ring effect using paper devices

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Abstract

Enabled by the coffee-ring effect, a paper-based signal transduce method is employed for catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) amplification and hybridization chain reaction (HCR) to achieve miRNA quantification. Once the target miRNAs appeared, it was circularly used by CHA to initiate HCR amplification to produce a large number of G-quadruplex, which is combined with hemin to form a hemin/G-quadruplex DNAzyme. The DNAzyme catalyzes a colorimetric reaction to produce colored nanoparticles, which were converted to the end edge of the paper by evaporation-driven flow, forming a visible colored band. Higher concentration of miRNA led to more colored nanoparticles and thus a longer colored band that can simply be measured by a ruler. The results of determination of miRNA in samples demonstrate that the relative standard deviation of the proposed approach is 5.2%, highly sensitive and repeatable, with a working range 1.0 to 1000 pM and a LOD of 0.2 pM. The paper-based analytical device as a novel platform offers a new signal transduce pathway toward the detection of low-abundance biomarkers for diagnosis.

Graphical abstract

Schematic representation of the principle for quantification of miRNA on paper based on the coffee-ring effect.

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Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2242018 K41023). This work was supported by the Key Project and Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, Southeast University. This work was supported by the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (2019 M012945; 2019 M653061), the General Project of Basic Research in Shenzhen, the Suzhou Engineering and Technological Research Center of Natural Medicine and Functional Food (grant no. SZ2017ZX06), and the Anhui Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 2008085QH365).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangdong Key Laboratory of Biomedical Measurements and Ultrasound Imaging, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Dagan Zhang, Peng Gao, Huan Wang, Junjie Chi & Tiantian Kong

  2. Suzhou Engineering and Technological Research Center of Natural Medicine and Functional Food, School of Biology and Food Engineering, Suzhou University, Suzhou, 234000, China

    Chao Wu

  3. Department of Hematology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022, Anhui, China

    Chengxin Luan

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  1. Dagan Zhang
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  2. Chao Wu
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  3. Chengxin Luan
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  4. Peng Gao
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  5. Huan Wang
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  6. Junjie Chi
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  7. Tiantian Kong
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Correspondence to Huan Wang, Junjie Chi or Tiantian Kong.

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Zhang, D., Wu, C., Luan, C. et al. Distance-based quantification of miRNA-21 by the coffee-ring effect using paper devices. Microchim Acta 187, 513 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-020-04500-7

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