Hiring Non-toxic Virus Nanoparticles to Count Cancer Biomarker Molecules

前列腺癌的一种生物标志物，称为microRNAs (miRNAs)，在癌症患者的血清中具有独特的水平。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定量实时聚合酶链反应来检测。然而，当该技术用于检测低水平的mirna时，不能产生可重复和可靠的结果。为了能够在低水平上可靠地量化前列腺癌特异性mirna，我们提出了一种超灵敏的策略，即使用无毒病毒纳米颗粒探测mirna。这种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mirna。因此，在一个平台上检测多个目标mirna是可能的，因为当病毒纳米颗粒表面呈现三种不同的荧光分子时，病毒纳米颗粒可以发出三种不同的荧光灯来检测三种不同的目标mirna。我们在这个项目中的目标是开发新的策略，以量化血清样本中的多种前列腺癌miRNA生物标志物，包括前列腺癌特异性的三种靶标miRNA。我们的目标是实现检测血清中前列腺癌生物标志物的高灵敏度、准确性和可重复性。本项目将开发一种新的简便方法，可以精确检测前列腺癌生物标志物，从而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.