Artificial Nucleotide Aptamer-Based Field-Effect Transistor for Ultrasensitive Detection of Hepatoma Exosomes
Yiheng Chen, Derong Kong, Liping Qiu, Yungen Wu, Changhao Dai, Shi Luo, Zhipeng Huang, Qiuyuan Lin, Hui Chen, Sitao Xie, Li Geng, Jun Zhao, Weihong Tan, Yunqi Liu, Dacheng Wei
Abstract
An aptamer-based field-effect transistor (Apta-FET) is a well-developed assay method with high selectivity and sensitivity. Due to the limited information density that natural nucleotide library holds, the Apta-FET faces fundamental restriction in universality to detect various types of analytes. Herein, we demonstrate a type of Apta-FET sensors based on an artificial nucleotide aptamer (AN-Apta-FET). The introduction of an artificial nucleotide increases the diversity of the potential aptamer structure and expands the analyte category of the Apta-FET. The AN-Apta-FET specifically detects hepatoma exosomes, which traditional Apta-FET fails to discriminate from other tumor-derived exosomes, with a limit of detection down to 242 particles mL–1. The AN-Apta-FET distinguishes serum samples of hepatocellular carcinoma patients within 9 min from those of healthy people, showing the potential as a comprehensive assay tool in future disease diagnosis.