A dual-mode portable platform with spatiotemporal temperature–pressure signal readouts for ultrasensitive quantitative determination of cancer cells

Early precise diagnosis of cancer is a prerequisite for cancer-related mortality and improved therapeutic outcomes. Direct quantitative cancer cell detection technologies show a great potential for early screening and diagnosis of cancer. However, the reported techniques generally involve exorbitant costs, lengthy procedures, and inevitable use of large-scale apparatus. We develop herein a spatiotemporal dual-mode sensing platform based on temperature and pressure signals for rapid, sensitive, and straightforward quantitative detection of cancer cells. Specifically, this platform is constructed by a dual-signal response probe consisting of hyaluronic acid (HA)-modified hollow copper sulfide nanoparticles (CuS@HA NPs), which not only elicits a robust and spatiotemporal photothermal effect via localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) but also promotes a rapid photothermal decomposition of NH4HCO3. This dual-signal response probe demonstrates a broad detection range from 10 to 105 cells/mL for sensing triple-negative breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) due to the specific recognition between HA and CD44 receptors. Notably, the remarkable sensitivities, with detection limits of 9 and 4 cells/mL for temperature and pressure signal readouts respectively, display about one order of magnitude lower than conventional immunoassay methods. The practicability and high reliability of the proposed strategy are further validated via analyzing clinic serum samples. Moreover, the localized photothermal therapy induced by the specific binding of CuS@HA NPs can realize targeted elimination of cancer cells. Overall, the developed dual-mode sensing platform demonstrates significant potential as a facile yet robust strategy for real-time and on-site determination of cancer cells in actual samples.