Hiring Non-toxic Virus Nanoparticles to Count Cancer Biomarker Molecules

前列腺癌的一种生物标记物，称为microRNAs(MiRNAs)，在癌症患者的血清中有独特的水平。因此，检测它们将使我们能够更早地诊断前列腺癌。目前，这类生物标志物只能通过实时定量聚合酶链式反应进行检测。然而，当该技术用于低水平的miRNAs检测时，不能产生可重复性和可靠的结果。为了能够可靠地在低水平上定量前列腺癌特异的miRNAs，我们提出了一种超敏感的策略，即雇佣无毒的病毒纳米颗粒来探测miRNAs。这一策略是基于这样一个事实，即病毒纳米颗粒可以被设计成能够发出三种不同的光，并与纳米颗粒形成复合物，以捕获目标miRNAs。因此，在一个平台上检测多个靶miRNAs是可能的，因为当三个不同的荧光分子出现在病毒纳米粒的表面时，病毒纳米粒可以发射三个不同的荧光来检测三个不同的靶miRNAs。我们在这个项目中的目标是开发新的策略，以定量血清样本中的多个前列腺癌miRNA生物标记物，包括三个针对前列腺癌的靶miRNAs。我们的目标是实现检测血清中前列腺癌生物标记物的高灵敏度、准确性和重复性。本项目将开发一种新的简便方法，可以准确地检测前列腺癌的生物标志物，从而可以用于前列腺癌的早期诊断。

A type of biomarkers for prostate cancer, called microRNAs (miRNAs), has a unique level in serum from cancer patients. Hence, detecting them will allow us to diagnose prostate cancer earlier. Currently, this type of biomarkers can only be detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. However, this technique does not generate reproducible and reliable results when it is used to detect miRNAs at a low level. To be able to reliably quantify prostate cancer-specific miRNAs at a low level, we propose an ultrasensitive strategy that hires non-toxic virus nanoparticles for probing the miRNAs. This strategy is based on the fact that the virus nanoparticles can be engineered to become capable of emitting three different lights and form complex with nanoparticles for capturing the target miRNAs. It is thus possible to detect multiple target miRNAs in one platform because the virus nanoparticles can emit three different fluorescence lights for detecting three different target miRNAs when three different fluorescent molecules are presented on the surface of the virus nanoparticles. Our objective in this project is to develop the new strategy in order to quantify multiple prostate cancer miRNA biomarkers in serum samples, including three target miRNAs specific for the prostate cancer. We aim to achieve high sensitivity, accuracy, and reproducibility for detecting the prostate cancer biomarkers in serum. This project will develop a new facile method that can precisely detect the prostate cancer biomarkers and thus can be used for early prostate cancer diagnosis.