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Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy as a readout method for immunocytochemistry with upconversion nanoparticles

Microchimica Acta volume 188, Article number: 147 (2021) Cite this article

Abstract

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and immunocytochemistry (ICC) are widely used to identify cancerous cells within tissues and cell cultures. Even though the optical microscopy evaluation is considered the gold standard, the limited range of useful labels and narrow multiplexing capabilities create an imminent need for alternative readout techniques. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) enables large-scale multi-elemental analysis of the surface of biological samples, e.g., thin section or cell pellet. It is, therefore, a potential alternative for IHC and ICC readout of various labels or tags (Tag-LIBS approach). Here, we introduce Tag-LIBS as a method for the specific determination of HER2 biomarker. The cell pellets were labeled with streptavidin-conjugated upconversion nanoparticles (UCNP) through a primary anti-HER2 antibody and a biotinylated secondary antibody. The LIBS scanning enabled detecting the characteristic elemental signature of yttrium as a principal constituent of UCNP, thus indirectly providing a reliable way to differentiate between HER2-positive BT-474 cells and HER2-negative MDA-MB-231 cells. The comparison of results with upconversion optical microscopy and luminescence intensity scanning confirmed that LIBS is a promising alternative for the IHC and ICC readout.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Antonín Hlaváček for the synthesis of UCNPs and Matthias J. Mickert for the help with the optimization of the ICC experiments.

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (MEYS CR) under the projects CEITEC 2020 (LQ1601), INTER-ACTION (LTAB19011), and by the CzechNanoLab Research Infrastructure supported by MEYS CR (LM2018110). We acknowledge CF Nanobiotechnology of CIISB, Instruct-CZ Centre, supported by MEYS CR (LM2018127). PP and PM gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Czech Science Foundation within the project 20-19526Y. KV, IG, and KN acknowledge the support by the project 1390/2020 Analytical and physical chemistry in the research of biological, geological, and synthetic materials (BIOGEOSYNT). MP and ZF gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the Czech Science Foundation within the project GJ20-30004Y.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central European Institute of Technology, Brno University of Technology, Purkyňova 656/123, 612 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Pavel Pořízka, Pavlína Modlitbová & Jozef Kaiser

  2. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Karolína Vytisková, Ivo Gábriš & Karel Novotný

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Radka Obořilová, Matěj Pastucha, Petr Skládal & Zdeněk Farka

  4. Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Matěj Pastucha, Petr Skládal & Zdeněk Farka

  5. Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Chemo- and Biosensors, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93040, Regensburg, Germany

    Julian C. Brandmeier & Hans H. Gorris

Authors
  1. Pavel Pořízka
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  2. Karolína Vytisková
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  3. Radka Obořilová
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  4. Matěj Pastucha
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  7. Pavlína Modlitbová
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  8. Hans H. Gorris
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  9. Karel Novotný
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  10. Petr Skládal
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  11. Jozef Kaiser
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  12. Zdeněk Farka
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Correspondence to Karel Novotný.

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Pořízka, P., Vytisková, K., Obořilová, R. et al. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy as a readout method for immunocytochemistry with upconversion nanoparticles. Microchim Acta 188, 147 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-04816-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-04816-y

Keywords

  • Immunocytochemistry
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy
  • Tag-LIBS
  • Photon-upconversion nanoparticles