A microfluidic-based chemiluminescence biosensor for sensitive multiplex detection of exosomal microRNAs based on hybridization chain reaction

The analysis of microRNAs (miRNAs) in exosomes is of great importance for noninvasive early disease diagnosis. However, current techniques to detect exosomal miRNAs is hampered either by laborious exosome isolation or low abundance of miRNAs in exosomes. Here, we developed a microfluidic chemiluminescence (CL) analysis method for the multiplexed detection of exosomal miR-21 and miR-155. The microfluidic device contained three parts: a snake-shaped channel for fully mixing chemiluminescent reagents, a ship-shaped channel modified with CD63 protein aptamer for capturing exosomes, and another two parallel ship-shaped channels for hybridization chain reaction (HCR) amplification and CL detection. The multiple signal amplification was realized by Y-shaped arrays, HCR amplification, and poly-HRP catalyzed CL reaction. Using this multiple signal amplification method, our microfluidic CL biosensor achieves a limit of detection of miRNAs of 0.49 fM, with a linear range of 1 fM-10 pM, which is better or comparable to previously reported biosensors. What's more, the proposed microfluidic biosensor exhibits great specificity and selectivity to the target miRNA. Moreover, the microfluidic CL strategy exhibited excellent accuracy and could significantly distinguish different cancer subtypes as well as cancer patients and healthy people. These results suggest that this simple, high sensitive, and more accurate analytical strategy by analyzing different types of exosomal miRNAs has the potential applications in cancer diagnosis and stage monitoring.