title: Analysis of alternative splicing events for cancer diagnosis using a multiplexing nanophotonic biosensor.
abstract: Personalized medicine is a promising tool not only for prevention, screening and development of more efficient treatment strategies, but also for diminishing the side effects caused by current therapies. Deciphering gene regulation pathways provides a reliable prognostic analysis to elucidate the origin of grave diseases and facilitate the selection of the most adequate treatment for each individual. Alternative splicing of mRNA precursors is one of these gene regulation pathways and enables cells to generate different protein outputs from the same gene depending on their developmental or homeostatic status. Its deregulation is strongly linked to disease onset and progression constituting a relevant and innovative class of biomarker. Herein we report a highly selective and sensitive nanophotonic biosensor based on the direct monitoring of the aberrant alternative splicing of Fas gene. Unlike conventional methods, the nanobiosensor performs a real-time detection of the specific isoforms in the fM-pM range without any cDNA synthesis or PCR amplification requirements. The nanobiosensor has been proven isoform-specific with no crosshybridization, greatly minimizing detection biases. The demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity make our nanobiosensor ideal for examining significant tumor-associated expression shifts of alternatively spliced isoforms for the early and accurate theranostics of cancer.
authors.affiliation: Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group, Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, and CIBER-BBN, Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: César S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Huertas
authors.affiliation: Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group, Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, and CIBER-BBN, Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Santos
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Domínguez-Zotes
authors.affiliation: Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group, Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, and CIBER-BBN, Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Laura M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Lechuga
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing / Q000235:genetics*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D007368:Interferometry; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D017785:Photons; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017655:Silicon Compounds / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D020033:Protein Isoforms; D017655:Silicon Compounds; D004247:DNA; C032734:silicon nitride