title: Single living cell detection of telomerase over-expression for cancer detection by an optical fiber nanobiosensor.
abstract: An optical fiber nanobiosensor was constructed to successfully detect a general cancer biomarker, telomerase at single cell level with its nanoscale tip. The nanotip immobilized with a specific antibody was inserted into a MCF-7 breast cancer cell nucleus to capture telomerases directly, after which an in vitro enzymatic sandwich immunoassay was performed to achieve sensitive single living cell detection. The nanotip inserted into MCF-7 cell nucleus provides significantly higher average (F-F(0))/F(0) ratio than that of human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSC) nucleus, demonstrating the successful detection of the telomerase over-expression in cancer cells as compared to normal cells. The detection in the cytoplasm shows much smaller average ratio than that in the nucleus of MCF-7 cells while clearly verifies the nuclear localization of telomerase. The successful detection of telomerase over-expression in a single living cell for the first time may provide a potential method for cancer detection, and also demonstrate a universal approach that can be used to detect other low expression proteins in a single living cell.
authors: School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
authors: Xin Ting
authors: XT
authors: Zheng
authors: Chang Ming
authors: CM
authors: Li
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000295:instrumentation; D006801:Humans; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000295:instrumentation*; D019098:Telomerase / Q000032:analysis*; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D019098:Telomerase