Noise Reduction Method for Quantifying Nanoparticle Light Scattering in Low Magnification Dark-Field Microscope Far-Field Images

Anal Chem. 2016 Dec 20;88(24):12001-12005. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.6b03661. Epub 2016 Nov 28.

Abstract

Nanoparticles have become a powerful tool for cell imaging and biomolecule, cell and protein interaction studies, but are difficult to rapidly and accurately measure in most assays. Dark-field microscope (DFM) image analysis approaches used to quantify nanoparticles require high-magnification near-field (HN) images that are labor intensive due to a requirement for manual image selection and focal adjustments needed when identifying and capturing new regions of interest. Low-magnification far-field (LF) DFM imagery is technically simpler to perform but cannot be used as an alternate to HN-DFM quantification, since it is highly sensitive to surface artifacts and debris that can easily mask nanoparticle signal. We now describe a new noise reduction approach that markedly reduces LF-DFM image artifacts to allow sensitive and accurate nanoparticle signal quantification from LF-DFM images. We have used this approach to develop a "Dark Scatter Master" (DSM) algorithm for the popular NIH image analysis program ImageJ, which can be readily adapted for use with automated high-throughput assay analyses. This method demonstrated robust performance quantifying nanoparticles in different assay formats, including a novel method that quantified extracellular vesicles in patient blood sample to detect pancreatic cancer cases. Based on these results, we believe our LF-DFM quantification method can markedly decrease the analysis time of most nanoparticle-based assays to impact both basic research and clinical analyses.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Antibodies, Immobilized / chemistry
  • Antibodies, Immobilized / metabolism
  • Artifacts
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
  • Gold / chemistry
  • Humans
  • Immunoassay
  • Metal Nanoparticles / chemistry*
  • Microscopy / methods*
  • Staphylococcal Protein A / metabolism

Substances

  • Antibodies, Immobilized
  • Bacterial Proteins
  • IgG Fc-binding protein, Streptococcus
  • Staphylococcal Protein A
  • Gold