Early-phase diagnosis of plasma miRNA-21 in cancerous patients based on time and intensity of color changing in gold nanoparticles

Introduction & Objectives: The expression of some miRNAs is increased in the blood of cancerous patients. Therefore, the early detection of cancer by measuring the concentration of miRNAs helps to improve treatment of these cancers. Evaluating the concentration of miRNA-21 by gold nanoparticles is a molecular method for early-phase diagnosis of cancer.Materials & Methods: MiRNAs from the plasma of 30 patients with breast, colon, sarcoma, and bladder of cancers were extracted. Subsequently, the extracted samples were subjected to specific Au-NProbes aggregation. Finally, the time and intensity of color changing were measured using spectrophotometry.Results: Color-changing of Au-Nprobe-21 from red to purple-gray was observed in clinical specimens of sarcoma, breast, colon, and bladder. Average intensity of color changing of Au-Nprobe-21 tested for bladder and sarcoma samples was reported 0.129 and 0.127 respectively. The average intensity of colon samples and breast samples was 0.165 and 0.14, respectively. Besides, the average time of aggregation of gold nanoparticles tested for bladder and sarcoma samples was 3.5 s and 3.5 s respectively. The average time of colon samples and breast samples was 3.8 s and 4.1 s, respectively.Conclusion: In conclusion, quantitative investigation of miRNA-21 concentrations by aggregation and color-changing could facilitate development of a point-of-care biosensor for rapid and simple prognosis and diagnosis of common lethal cancers.

کلیدواژه ها:

Early detection ، miRNA-21 ، gold nanoparticles ، color changing ، quantitative analysis.