Novel Fluorescent Probe Based on Rare-Earth Doped Upconversion Nanomaterials and Its Applications in Early Cancer Detection

Zhou Ding; Yue He; Hongtao Rao; Le Zhang; William Nguyen; Jingjing Wang; Ying Wu; Caiqin Han; Christina Xing; Changchun Yan; Wei Chen; Ying Liu

doi:10.3390/nano12111787

Novel Fluorescent Probe Based on Rare-Earth Doped Upconversion Nanomaterials and Its Applications in Early Cancer Detection

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 May 24;12(11):1787. doi: 10.3390/nano12111787.

Authors

Zhou Ding¹, Yue He¹, Hongtao Rao¹, Le Zhang¹, William Nguyen², Jingjing Wang¹, Ying Wu¹, Caiqin Han¹, Christina Xing², Changchun Yan¹, Wei Chen^{2

3}, Ying Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Laser Materials and Devices, School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou 221116, China.
² Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX 76019-0059, USA.
³ Medical Technology Research Centre, Chelmsford Campus, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford CM1 1SQ, UK.

Abstract

In this paper, a novel rare-earth-doped upconverted nanomaterial NaYF₄:Yb,Tm fluorescent probe is reported, which can detect cancer-related specific miRNAs in low abundance. The detection is based on an upconversion of nanomaterials NaYF₄:Yb,Tm, with emissions at 345, 362, 450, 477, 646, and 802 nm, upon excitation at 980 nm. The optimal Yb³⁺:Tm³⁺ doping ratio is 40:1, in which the NaYF₄:Yb,Tm nanomaterials have the strongest fluorescence. The NaYF₄:Yb, Tm nanoparticles were coated with carboxylation or carboxylated protein, in order to improve their water solubility and biocompatibility. The two commonly expressed proteins, miRNA-155 and miRNA-150, were detected by the designed fluorescent probe. The results showed that the probes can distinguish miRNA-155 well from partial and complete base mismatch miRNA-155, and can effectively distinguish miRNA-155 and miRNA-150. The preliminary results indicate that these upconverted nanomaterials have good potential for protein detection in disease diagnosis, including early cancer detection.

Keywords: miRNA-150; miRNA-155; novel fluorescent probe; upconversion nanomaterials.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China grant number 61971207, Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province grant number (KYCX20_2213) and Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutes of China grant number 19KJA510003 and 20KJA430003.