Rolling circle amplification assisted commercial personal glucose meter based exosome detection for potentially more accurate atherosclerosis report

Abstract

Exosomes, function as an important mediator of inter-cellular communication in the release of inflammatory cytokines and over-activation of inflammatory responses, are closely related to the occurrence and development of Atherosclerosis (AS). However, It remains a huge challenge to develop a cost-effective method for early identification of exosomes. Herein, we proposed a simple, portable and sensitive biosensor for exosomes quantification using commercial personal glucose meter (PGM) for signal readout. Highlights of the proposed method can be concluded as: i) the signals of exosomes were translated to signals of nucleic acids through an elegantly designed capture probe, coupling with signal amplification strategies to improve sensitivity; ii) with the assistance of DNA-invertase, the amplified nucleic acids signals are converted into glucose signals that can be detected by PGM; iii) apart from the portability, the proposed method also exhibits an exosomes detection range from 103 to 106 particles/μl. We believe that the established method can be potentially applied in clinical diagnosis as a point-of-care testing (POCT) tool and thus contribute to the early-diagnosis of atherosclerosis.