The detection of biomarkers requires not only high sensitivity but also different signal reading methods depending on the actual situation. Herein, the luminescent properties of CdTe quantum dots (QDs) were exploited, where CdTe QDs were used as shared signal molecules. Combining multiple types of nucleic acid and chemical signal amplification techniques, and various signal detection techniques, a magnetic nanoparticle (NP) and filter-assisted separation multimode sensing strategy has been developed. In this work, miRNA-141 was selected as a representative target, which can trigger the catalyzed hairpin assembly and hybrid chain reaction enzyme-free nucleic acid signal amplification that generates long double-stranded DNA. Subsequently, the chemical amplification of silver NPs (Ag NPs) that release a large amount of Ag+ was introduced into the system. Finally, the cation-exchange reaction between CdTe QDs and Ag+ was utilized to quench the fluorescence (FL) of the CdTe QDs, releasing free Cd2+. The visual/FL/chemical vapor generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CVG-AFS)/inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) method could then be performed for the analysis of miRNA. After investigating its experimental performance, it has been found that 10 fM can be differentiated from the blank solution with the naked eye. In addition, FL/CVG-AFS/ICP-MS methods all displayed good analytical capability for target detection, and the limits of detection (LODs) are as low as fM, which show high target sequence selectivity. This platform was applied to investigate miRNA-141 expression in various cancer cells, which can accurately detect in the range of 100-100 000 MDA-MB-231 cells (breast cancer cell lines), with an LOD of 15 cells. Therefore, the multimode sensing strategy based on a single signal molecule and multiple signal amplification strategies is an applicable and versatile detection method of biomarkers; it can even achieve point-of-care testing, improving the accuracy and efficiency of medical diagnosis.
Keywords: Ag NPs; CdTe QDs; cancer cells; cation-exchange reaction; microRNA sensing; multimode; multiple enzyme-free signal amplification.