A multiplex microchamber diffusion assay for the antibody-based detection of microRNAs on randomly ordered microbeads

Abstract

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, conserved, noncoding RNAs regulating gene expression that functions in RNA silencing and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Altered miRNA profiles have been implicated in many human diseases, and due to their circulating abilities, they have excited great interest in their use as clinical biomarkers. The development of innovative methods for miRNA detection has become of high scientific and clinical interest. Methods: We developed a diffusion-driven microbead assay and combined it with an antibody-based miRNA detection. The diffusion process was carried out in two different approaches a) co-diffusion of miRNA and antibodies (termed diffusion approach I, DAI) and b) diffusion of miRNA in an antibody-saturated environment (DAII). In both approaches, neutravidin-coated microbeads were loaded with specific biotinylated DNA capture probes, which targets either miR-21-5p, miR-30a-3p or miR-93-5p. The miRNAs were time- and dose-dependently detected in a diffusion microchamber by primary anti-DNA:RNA hybrid and fluorescence-labeled secondary antibodies using our in-house developed inverse fluorescence microscope imaging platform VideoScan. Results: Our assay offers the advantage that several target molecules can be detected simultaneously and in real-time in one reaction environment (multiplex), without any amplification steps. We recorded the diffusion process over a period of 24 h and found that the reaction was almost completed after 2 h. The specificity of the assay was 96.7 % for DAI and 92.3 % for DAII. The detection limits were in a concentration range of 0.03-0.43 nM for DAI and 0.14-1.09 nM for DAII, depending on the miRNA. Conclusion: The miRNAs are successively exposed to the capture probe-loaded randomly ordered microbeads (p value of CSR 0.23-0.96), which leads to microbeads that become saturated with the target molecules first in front rows. Non-bonded miRNAs continue to diffuse further and can therefore subsequently bind to the microbeads with free binding sites. Our detection principle differs from other microbead assays, in which all microbeads are simultaneously mixed with the sample solution, so that all target molecules bind equally distributed to the microbeads, resulting in an averaged signal intensity.

Novel Anti Double-Stranded Nucleic Acids Full-Length Recombinant Camelid Heavy-Chain Antibody for the Detection of miRNA

“…The novel recombinant camelid antibody L19 can, therefore, be a useful tool for the further establishment of antibody-based miRNA detection. Recently, a new study was published that describes the antibody-based miRNA detection on the basis of the multiplex microchamber diffusion assay using the anti-hybrid DNA:RNA antibody (clone S9.6) [ 39 ]. These results in combination with the novel generated camelid miRNA binder may contribute to the further establishment or to the development of novel strategies for miRNA detection in a sequence-specific manner.…”