Nanoplasmonic pillars engineered for single exosome detection

PLoS One. 2018 Aug 24;13(8):e0202773. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202773. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Exosomes are secreted nanovesicles which incorporate proteins and nucleic acids, thereby enabling multifunctional pathways for intercellular communication. There is an increasing appreciation of the critical role they play in fundamental processes such as development, wound healing and disease progression, yet because of their heterogeneous molecular content and low concentrations in vivo, their detection and characterization remains a challenge. In this work we combine nano- and microfabrication techniques for the creation of nanosensing arrays tailored toward single exosome detection. Elliptically-shaped nanoplasmonic sensors are fabricated to accommodate at most one exosome and individually imaged in real time, enabling the label-free recording of digital responses in a highly multiplexed geometry. This approach results in a three orders of magnitude sensitivity improvement over previously reported real-time, multiplexed platforms. Each nanosensor is elevated atop a quartz nanopillar, minimizing unwanted nonspecific substrate binding contributions. The approach is validated with the detection of exosomes secreted by MCF7 breast adenocarcinoma cells. We demonstrate the increasingly digital and stochastic nature of the response as the number of subsampled nanosensors is reduced from four hundred to one.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Exosomes / metabolism*
  • Gold / chemistry
  • Humans
  • MCF-7 Cells
  • Microscopy, Atomic Force
  • Nanostructures / chemistry*
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance / methods*

Substances

  • Gold

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Naval Research Laboratory’s Institute for Nanoscience, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research & Engineering (Vannevar Bush Award), and a National Research Council Research Postdoc Associateship Award. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.