Smartphone-Based Electrochemical Biosensors for Directly Detecting Serum-Derived Exosomes and Monitoring Their Secretion

Anal Chem. 2022 Feb 22;94(7):3235-3244. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c04910. Epub 2022 Jan 27.

Abstract

Exosomes are potential biomarkers, which play an important role in early diagnosis and prognosis prediction of cancer-related diseases. Nevertheless, direct quantification of exosomes in biological fluid, especially in point-of-care tests (POCTs), remains extremely challenging. Herein, we developed a sensitive and portable electrochemical biosensor in combination with smartphones for quantitative analysis of exosomes. The improved double-antibody sandwich method-based poly-enzyme signal amplification was adopted to detect exosomes. We could detect as low as 7.23 ng of CD63-positive exosomes in 5 μL of serum within 2 h. Importantly, we demonstrated that the biosensor worked well with microliter-level serum and cell culture supernatant. The biosensor holds great potential for the detection of CD-63-expressing exosomes in early diagnosis of prostate disease because CD63-positive exosomes were less detected from the prostate patient serum. Also, the biosensor was used to monitor the secretion of exosomes with the drug therapy, showing a close relationship between the secretion of exosomes and the concentration of cisplatin. The biosensing platform provides a novel way toward POCT for the diagnosis and prognosis prediction of prostate disease and other diseases via biomarker expression levels of exosomes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antibodies
  • Biosensing Techniques*
  • Early Detection of Cancer
  • Exosomes*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Smartphone

Substances

  • Antibodies