Analytische Chemie
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Enzyme-activatable optical probes are important for future advances in cancer imaging, but may easily suffer from low signal-to-background ratios unless not optimized. To address this shortcoming, numerous mechanisms to modulate the fluorescence signal have been explored.
We report herein newly synthesized probes based on selfimmolative linkers containing chiral J-aggregate-forming dyes.
Signal modulation by formation of chiral J-aggregates is yet unexplored in optical enzyme probe design. The comprehensive characterization of the probes by absorption, CD, fluorescence, and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy revealed dye−dye interactions not observed for the free dyes in solution as well as dye−protein interactions with the enzyme. This suggested
that J-aggregate formation is challenging to achieve with current probe design and that interactions of the dyes with the Enzyme may interfere with achieving high signal-to-background ratios. The detailed understanding of the interactions provided herein provides valuable guidelines for the future design of similar probes.
Methods for the rapid and sensitive detection of target analytes are gaining importance in medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring, in the security, occupational health and safety as well as food sectors. Among all of the methods employed for rapid tests, lateral flow assays (LFAs) are the most commonly used, and hundreds of test kits based on this technique are available on the market. A major drawback is that most of these capture agents either indicate the analyte only indirectly, and in most cases a second binding agent able to bind directly or indirectly to the analytes is necessary (e.g., a secondary labeled antibody). Furthermore, in certain cases in which the (ultra)trace detection of an analyte is required, the traditional approach of a certain number of probe molecules being conjugated to a particular support is not sufficient. Therefore, novel concepts implementing steps of effective signal amplification are urgently required.
Keeping in mind these limitations, we thought that the sensitivity of these systems should be improvable through employment of gated reporter molecule-releasing hybrid nanoparticle materials on novel lateral flow devices. On one hand, the gated sensor material can produce a massive signal amplification, by releasing many reporter molecules only after chemical recognition of a few analyte molecules has taken place in an independent and separate step at the pore openings. On the other hand, the employment of tailored capture materials for the selective interaction with the released reporter molecules in a second arbitrary zone on the strip allows to concentrate or focus the latter for more efficient detection or to create selective multi-spot detection zones, which renders the simultaneous detection of several reporter molecules at the same time in multiplexed detection of various analytes possible.
For that purpose, we have prepared several stimuli-responsive materials for small-molecule sensing based on specific interactions between biomolecules such as antibodies with the corresponding analytes for the detection of certain explosives. In order to prepare these bio-capped materials, we have selected silica mesoporous nanoparticles (MSNs) as inorganic support due to their unique properties such as defined void structure, high inner surface area and flexible functionalization chemistry. These MSNs are loaded with a brightly fluorescent indicator dye, and the external surface is subsequently functionalized with suitable molecules able to interact with antibodies, efficiently inhibiting dye release. The opening protocol and delivery of the entrapped dye is reminiscent of a displacement reaction involving the presence of the target analyte, producing a displacement of the biomolecule and allowing the detection of the target analyte.
The presentation discusses general aspects of system design as well as analytical performance and highlights the integration into a lateral-flow assay, showing as an example the determination of the explosives TATP, TNT and PETN with fluorescence readout, in single-substance and multiplexing modes.
The urgent necessity to carry out reliable and relevant analytical measurements directly at a point-of-need is one of the current drivers for the development of miniaturised analytical systems, quick tests and wearables. Despite their simplicity, this type of tests must guarantee analytical relevance and reliability like laboratory-based analysis, e.g., in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, immunity against false positives and false negatives as well as robustness and repeatability. Keeping in mind the high sensitivity offered by gated indicator-releasing micro- and nanoparticles due to their inherent features of signal amplification, we performed several optimisations to develop a potential biosensor platform for use in rapid tests. Conceptually, these gated materials are closely related to drug delivery systems, consisting of high porous materials usually closed with macromolecular “caps” and loaded with indicator molecules that are released in presence of a target analyte. However, the key difference between the two types of functional materials is that many drug delivery systems should deliver their cargo over a longer period, often many hours, whereas the gated materials prepared for sensing should show fast release kinetics, on the order of <5 min.
With the aim to optimise and adapt gated materials for sensing purposes, we prepared in this work several antibody-gated materials for small-molecule sensing. The materials consisted of porous silica particles containing indicator molecules in the pores and certain hapten molecules grafted to the particle surface close to the pore openings. The pores were then capped with antibodies binding to these haptens, thus inhibiting the escape of the indicators from inside of the pores. In presence of the corresponding analyte, the antibody is displaced from the surface of the material, allowing the escape of the indicators. This allows the detection of the analyte indirectly through an inherent signal amplification. In this work, the insecticide permethrin, a type-I pyrethroid, was selected as target model, because type-I pyrethroids play an important role in airplane disinfection. A first in-depth study of the various chemical tuning options of such antibody gated systems was performed. Different mesoporous silica supports, different functionalisation routes and different loading sequences were assessed. The materials’ performances were evaluated by studying their temporal response behaviour and detection sensitivity, including the tightness of pore closure (through the amount of blank release in absence of analyte) and the release kinetics. Our results indicate that the better the paratope-accommodating Fab region of the antibody “cap” fits into the host material’s pore openings, the better the closing/opening mechanism can be controlled. Because such materials can be used in various different formats from suspension assays[1] via microfluidic chips[2] to test strip-based lateral flow assays,[3] such materials present a powerful analytical particle platform for the sensitive analytics and diagnostics outside of a laboratory, realising sensitivities down to the µg kg–1 range in less analysis times of less than 5 min as we have recently demonstrated.[4]
The urgent necessity to carry out reliable and relevant analytical measurements directly at a point-of-need is one of the current drivers for the development of miniaturised analytical systems, quick tests and wearables. Despite their simplicity, this type of tests must guarantee analytical relevance and reliability like laboratory-based analysis, e.g., in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, immunity against false positives and false negatives as well as robustness and repeatability. Keeping in mind the high sensitivity offered by gated indicator-releasing micro- and nanoparticles due to their inherent features of signal amplification, we performed several optimisations to develop a potential biosensor platform for use in rapid tests. Conceptually, these gated materials are closely related to drug delivery systems, consisting of high porous materials usually closed with macromolecular “caps” and loaded with indicator molecules that are released in presence of a target analyte. However, the key difference between the two types of functional materials is that many drug delivery systems should deliver their cargo over a longer period, often many hours, whereas the gated materials prepared for sensing should show fast release kinetics, on the order of <5 min.
With the aim to optimise and adapt gated materials for sensing purposes, we prepared in this work several antibody-gated materials for small-molecule sensing. The materials consisted of porous silica particles containing indicator molecules in the pores and certain hapten molecules grafted to the particle surface close to the pore openings. The pores were then capped with antibodies binding to these haptens, thus inhibiting the escape of the indicators from inside of the pores. In presence of the corresponding analyte, the antibody is displaced from the surface of the material, allowing the escape of the indicators. This allows the detection of the analyte indirectly through an inherent signal amplification. In this work, the insecticide permethrin, a type-I pyrethroid, was selected as target model, because type-I pyrethroids play an important role in airplane disinfection. A first in-depth study of the various chemical tuning options of such antibody gated systems was performed. Different mesoporous silica supports, different functionalisation routes and different loading sequences were assessed. The materials’ performances were evaluated by studying their temporal response behaviour and detection sensitivity, including the tightness of pore closure (through the amount of blank release in absence of analyte) and the release kinetics. Our results indicate that the better the paratope-accommodating Fab region of the antibody “cap” fits into the host material’s pore openings, the better the closing/opening mechanism can be controlled. Because such materials can be used in various different formats from suspension assays[1] via microfluidic chips[2] to test strip-based lateral flow assays,[3] such materials present a powerful analytical particle platform for the sensitive analytics and diagnostics outside of a laboratory, realising sensitivities down to the µg kg–1 range in less analysis times of less than 5 min as we have recently demonstrated.[4]
The combination of electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) and aptamer-gated indicator delivering (gAID) magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticles embedded into glass fibre paper functionalised with poly(ethyleneglycol) and N-(3-triethoxysilylpropyl)diethanolamine allowed the development of a rapid test that detects penicillin directly in diluted milk down to 50 ± 9 ppt in <5 min. Covalent attachment of the aptamer ‘cap’ to the silica scaffold enabled pore closure through non-covalent electrostatic interactions with surface amino groups, while binding of penicillin led to a folding-up of the aptamer thus releasing the ECL reporter Ru(bpy)32+ previously loaded into the material and letting it be detected after lateral flow by a smartphone camera upon electrochemical excitation with a screen printed electrode inserted into a 3D-printed holder. The approach is simple, generic and presents advantages with respect to sensitivity, measurement uncertainty and robustness compared with conventional fluorescence or electrochemical detection, especially for point-of-need analyses of challenging matrices and analytes at ultra-trace levels.
Rapid testing methods for the use directly at a point-of-need are expected to unfold their true potential especially when offering adequate capabilities for the simultaneous measurement of multiple analytes of interest. However, the implementation of multiplexing features while retaining simplicity, performance and portability is one of the prominent challenges in the field. Keeping in mind these challenges, we decided to combine the use of stimuli-responsive materials for small-molecule sensing relying on chemical signal amplification and their incorporation on paper strips for lateral-flow assays in a straightforward manner. Considering the modularity, high sensitivity and selectivity of antibody-gated indicator delivery systems, a multiplexed assay for three small-molecule explosives TATP, TNT and PETN was developed, allowing to detect the analytes simultaneously with a single test strip at lower ppb concentrations in liquid phase in <5 min, using a fluorescence reader or a smartphone for readout.
Because of the versatility of the hybrid material and the modularity of the assay architecture, it is obvious that this generic approach should be easily transferable to food or environmental analysis, point-of-care diagnostics and other areas of application in which the rapid screening for multiple parameters from liquid samples without clean-up in a dedicated laboratory is in demand.
In this work, the optimization of the immunochemical response of antibody-gated indicator delivery (gAID) systems prepared with mesoporous silica nanoparticles has been studied along various lines of system tailoring, targeting the peroxide-type explosive TATP as an exemplary analyte. The mechanism of detection of these gAID systems relies on a displacement of an antibody “cap” bound to hapten derivatives anchored to the surface of a porous hybrid material, allowing the indicator cargo stored in the mesopores to escape and massively amplify the analyte-related signal. Since our aim was to obtain gAID systems with the best possible response in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, and assay time, sera obtained from different immunization boosts were screened, the influence of auxiliary reagents was assessed, structural hapten modification (hapten heterology) was investigated, and various indicator dyes and host materials were tested. Considering that highly selective and sensitive immunological responses are best obtained with high-affinity antibodies which, however, could possess rather slow dissociation constants, leading to slow responses, the main challenge was to optimize the immunochemical recognition system for a rapid response while maintaining a high sensitivity and selectivity. The best performance was observed by grafting a slightly mismatching (heterologous) hapten to the surface of the nanoparticles in combination with high-affinity antibodies as “caps”, yielding for the first time gAID nanomaterials for which the response time could be improved from hours to <5 min. The materials showed favorable detection limits in the lower ppb range and discriminated TATP well against H2O2 and other explosives. Further optimization led to straightforward integration of the materials into a lateral flow assay without further treatment or conditioning of the test strips while still guaranteeing remarkably fast overall assay times.