Unveiling massive numbers of cancer-related urinary-microRNA candidates via nanowires

Abstract

We demonstrate the first reported methodology using nanowires that unveils massive numbers of cancer-related urinary microRNAs.

Circulating miRNA panels for specific and early detection in bladder cancer

“…Recently, the molecular characterization of cell‐free DNA, circulating tumor DNA and circulating miRNA by liquid biopsy is an attractive alternative to tissue biopsy to diagnose cancer and other diseases . For diagnosis of bladder cancer by liquid biopsy, there are several reports of biomarker searches with large samples, including those detecting tumor‐specific hotspot mutations in serum DNA or miRNA in urine from patients .…”

“…19 Notably, the 7-miRNA panel in bladder cancer is also effective for the detection of both low and high grades (92.7% and 96.1% in sensitivity, respectively), Recently, the molecular characterization of cell-free DNA, circulating tumor DNA and circulating miRNA by liquid biopsy is an attractive alternative to tissue biopsy to diagnose cancer and other diseases. [13][14][15][20][21][22][23] In addition, urinary cytology, which has high specificity but low sensitivity, is commonly used for detecting bladder cancer. In the bladder cancer group, many cases also had not been captured by urinary cytology (Table 1).…”

“…MicroRNA (miRNA) are small non-coding RNA made up of [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] base pairs with single chain molecules. 5,6 MiRNA modulate gene expression by decreasing target mRNA stability or repressing translational efficiency.…”

Nanowire Sensors in Cancer

“…A year later, Yasui and colleagues reported the use of a high-density array of standing nanowires (ZnO structures 100 nm in width) with variable tilt embedded into a microfluidic channel to capture exosomes from urine and blood, followed by exosome lysis and extraction of miRNA for microarray analysis. This approach outperformed more classical methodologies such as ultracentrifugation and exosome precipitation, and did not only reach a higher capture efficiency [52] but also extracted a much larger variety of miRNA species from only 1 ml of cancer patient urine [53]. Of note, none of these arrays uses affinity-based capture of specific exosome populations ( Figure 2G), but they offer attractive strategies for the discovery of cancer-related miRNA and miRNA-based diagnosis.…”

Extracellular vesicle (EV)-polyphenol nanoaggregates for microRNA-based cancer diagnosis

“…Several studies have suggested that tumor-derived exosomes are important cancer markers that can be serially detected with minimal invasion 5,6 . Although they have been significantly improved by micro-and nanoengineering strategies [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] , exosome-based diagnostics still struggle to meet the demands of clinical applications involving point-of-care testing (PoCT) 18 , which requires a resource-free approach, ease of use, low cost, reliability, and scalability. In particular, the clinical utility of exosomes has been limited by technical obstacles associated with their physical properties (i.e., their small size of <100 nm) and the extensive sample preparation required prior to measurement due to their extremely low concentration (<10 9 vesicles/mL of serum) 7 .…”