Embedding Carbon Nanotubes in Artificial Cells Enhances Probe Transfer

Monitoring intracellular biomarkers is crucial for clinical disease diagnosis. However, the majority of signaling molecules face difficulties in slow transference across the cell membrane to reach intracellular detection sites, limiting their application in clinical settings. This study proposes an artificial cell-based signal probe transfer-enhanced sensing strategy to effectively detect microRNAs (miRNAs) by embedding carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in artificial cell membranes. The liposome-based artificial cell is constructed to protect the signal probes such as nucleic acids, metal ions, and fluorescent dyes. CNTs are embedded in artificial cell membranes and employed as artificial channels to enhance intercellular signal probe transduction and mass transfer. Through CNTs-mediate cell-cell signal probe transmission, the probes pass through the liposome membrane interface and fuse into target cells, selectively hybridizing with the intracellular target miRNAs, triggering a sensing process and resulting in enhanced fluorescence signal. Furthermore, molecular dynamics simulations are carried out to prove the enhancement of CNTs-mediated cell-cell fusion. This strategy demonstrates excellent analytical performance by quantitatively detecting let-7a miRNA and visualizing it in living colon cancer cells. These findings hold great significance in promoting and accelerating cell-cell signal probe transmission and enabling effective sensing of intracellular biomarkers for diagnostic purposes.