Zeptomole Imaging of Cytosolic MicroRNA Cancer Biomarkers with A Light-Controlled Nanoantenna

Abstract Detecting and quantifying intracellular microRNAs (miRNAs) are a critical step in resolving a cancer diagnostic and resolving the ensemble of gene products that orchestrate the living state of cells. However, the nanoprobe for detecting low abundance miRNAs in cell cytosol is restricted by either the “one-to-one” signal-trigger model or difficulty for cytosol delivery. To address these challenges, we designed a light-harvesting nanoantenna-based nanoprobe, which directs excitation energy to a single molecule to sensitively detect cytosolic miRNA. With light irradiation, the light-harvesting nanoantenna effectively disrupted lysosomal structures by generation of reactive oxygen species, substantially achieved cytosol delivery. The nanoantenna containing > 4000 donor dyes can efficiently transfer excitation energy to one or two acceptors with 99% efficiency, leading to unprecedented signal amplification and biosensing sensitivity. The designed nanoantenna can quantify cytosolic miR-210 at zeptomolar level. The fluorescence lifetime of the donor exhibited good relationship with miR-210 concentration in the range of 0.032 to 2.97 amol/ngRNA. The zeptomole sensitivity of nanoantenna provides accurate bioimaging of miR-210 both in multiple cell lines and in vivo assay, which creates a pathway for the creation of miRNA toolbox for quantitative epigenetics and personalized medicine