A Direct Detection of MicroRNA with Self-assembled Protein Nanosensor

MicroRNA (miRNA) has recently emerged as a new and important class of cellular regulators. Strong evidence that aberrant expression of miRNA is associated with a broad spectrum of human diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and psychological disorders. However, the short length and low abundance of miRNA place great challenges for conventional techniques in the miRNA quantitation and expression profiling. In this work, we propose a direct and ultrasensitive and mulitplex detection assay for miRNA without sample amplification. A self-assembled protein nanofibril acts as an online preconcentrating sensor to the target miRNA. Lock-nucleic acid (LNA) modified molecular beacon (MB) is the probe and signal generator. This work will further extend to clinical samples of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) patients’ tumor tissue, as well as blood and saliva such that a non-invasive sampling approach is adapted for early clinical disease diagnosis and prognosis, and clincial new drugs testing. The success of this project will certainly open up new avenues for development of highly sensitive and accurate detection systems to both biomedical reearches and a wide variety of clinical applications.