An aptasensor based on upconversion nanoparticles as LRET donors for the detection of exosomes

Abstract

Exosomes may be used as a crucial medium for the early diagnosis and potential therapy of tumors because of containing a variety of biological information. Therefore, the accurate quantitative analysis of exosomes is especially important in the biomedical field. Herein, we proposed a washing-free aptasensor based on luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET) between rare-earth doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) donor and tetramethyl rhodamine (TAMRA) acceptor for highly sensitive detection of exosomes. Therein, the combination of UCNPs and TAMRA can be achieved through the coupling of aptamers to the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM), the highly expressed surface proteins of the exosomes. Therefore, when the system of UCNPs-TAMRA in the presence of exosomes is excited by near-infrared light at 980 nm, TAMRA emits yellow fluorescence at 585 nm due to LRET. As a result, the fluorescence intensity at 585 nm is linearly correlated to the concentration of exosomes, which is available for the detection and quantification of exosomes. Under optimal conditions, the proposed approach can reach a low limit of detection (LOD) of 80 particles/μL, and effectively reduce the background signal by using UCNPs as an energy donor. Moreover, this proposed aptasensor can be universally applied to the detection of other targets by strictly screening the aptamers.