A Compact Prism-Based Microscope for Highly Sensitive Measurements in Fluid Biopsy

Year: 2025

Authors: Perego L., Dallari C., Falciani C., Pini A., Gardini L., Credi C., Pavone F.S.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Florence, Dept Phys, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Univ Florence, European Lab Nonlinear Spect LENS, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; CNR, Natl Inst Opt INO, Natl Res Council, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy; Univ Siena, Dept Med Biotechnol, Siena, Italy; SetLance Srl, Siena, Italy; Santa Maria Scotte Hosp, Clin Pathol Unit, Siena, Italy.

Abstract: The increasing demand for sensitive, portable, and affordable disease detection methods has spurred the development of advanced biosensors for rapid early-stage diagnosis, population mass screening, and bed-monitoring. Current high-sensitivity devices face hurdles such as high production costs and challenges in multiplexed signal detection. To address these, we developed a prism-based total internal reflection system which, in combination with surface functionalization techniques of gold nanoparticles, enables evanescent wave scattering for highly sensitive and rapid detection of specific analytes in both synthetic and human liquid samples. To validate its efficacy, we conducted scattering experiments in synthetic and human serum samples, exploiting functionalized AuNPs to recognize bacterial lipopolysaccharides as biomarkers for sepsis disease. We demonstrate a remarkable sensitivity in the femtogram per mL concentration range for this specific pathological biomarker. Based on this result we envisage the potential adoption of our technique for liquid biopsy in the clinical scenario.

Journal/Review: JOURNAL OF BIOPHOTONICS

More Information: This work was supported by FAS Regione Toscana under the DIVISA project-Progetti di alta formazione attraverso l’attivazione di AR-and by the Integrated infrastructure initiative in photonic and quantum sciences-I-PHOQS project finances by the European European Union’s Next Generation EU Programme, and by the European Union’s Horizon2020 research and innovation program under grant Agreement No 871124 Laserlab-Europe. This research has also been partially supported by the Italian Ministry for University and Research in the framework of the Advanced Light Microscopy Italian Node of Euro-Bioimaging ERIC. The authors would like also to thank the Centro di competenza RISE funded by FAS Regione Toscana. Open access publishing facilitated by Universita degli Studi di Firenze, as part o f the Wiley – CRUI-CARE agreement.
KeyWords: biosensors; compact set-up; lipopolysaccharides; nanoparticles; prism-based evanescent wave; scattering
DOI: 10.1002/jbio.202400519