Xin Meng, Kechun Wen, Jingyang Zhao, Yaru Han, Shanaz A. Ghandhi, Salan P. Kaur, David J. Brenner, Helen C. Turner, Sally A. Amundson and Qiao Lin
{"title":"Microfluidic measurement of intracellular mRNA with a molecular beacon probe towards point-of-care radiation triage†","authors":"Xin Meng, Kechun Wen, Jingyang Zhao, Yaru Han, Shanaz A. Ghandhi, Salan P. Kaur, David J. Brenner, Helen C. Turner, Sally A. Amundson and Qiao Lin","doi":"10.1039/D4SD00079J","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p >In large-scale radiation exposure events, the ability to triage potential victims by the received radiation dosage is crucial. This can be evaluated by radiation-induced biological changes. Radiation-responsive mRNA is a class of biomarkers that has been explored for dose-dependency with methods such as RT-qPCR. However, these methods are challenging to implement for point-of-care devices. We have designed and used molecular beacons as probes for the measurement of radiation-induced changes of intracellular mRNA in a microfluidic device towards determining radiation dosage. Our experiments, in which fixed TK6 cells labeled with a molecular beacon specific to <em>BAX</em> mRNA exhibited dose-dependent fluorescence in a manner consistent with RT-qPCR analysis, demonstrate that such intracellular molecular probes can potentially be used in point-of-care radiation biodosimetry. This proof of concept could readily be extended to any RNA-based test to provide direct measurements at the bedside.</p>","PeriodicalId":74786,"journal":{"name":"Sensors & diagnostics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2024/sd/d4sd00079j?page=search","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Sensors & diagnostics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/sd/d4sd00079j","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, ANALYTICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In large-scale radiation exposure events, the ability to triage potential victims by the received radiation dosage is crucial. This can be evaluated by radiation-induced biological changes. Radiation-responsive mRNA is a class of biomarkers that has been explored for dose-dependency with methods such as RT-qPCR. However, these methods are challenging to implement for point-of-care devices. We have designed and used molecular beacons as probes for the measurement of radiation-induced changes of intracellular mRNA in a microfluidic device towards determining radiation dosage. Our experiments, in which fixed TK6 cells labeled with a molecular beacon specific to BAX mRNA exhibited dose-dependent fluorescence in a manner consistent with RT-qPCR analysis, demonstrate that such intracellular molecular probes can potentially be used in point-of-care radiation biodosimetry. This proof of concept could readily be extended to any RNA-based test to provide direct measurements at the bedside.