Colorimetric aptasensor based on spherical nucleic acid-induced hybridization chain reaction for sensitive detection of exosomes

Exosomes are one of the most promising biomarkers for tumor diagnosis and prognosis. Therefore, the development of convenient and sensitive exosome sensing strategies is of great significance. Herein, we integrated aptamer-based spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) and hybridization chain reaction (HCR) into a colorimetric aptasensor platform and applied it to the detection of exosomes. In this design, the CD63-specific aptamer pre-immobilized on the microplate was used to capture target exosomes, while the SNAs conjugated with nucleolin-specific aptamer and trigger probe H1 were designed for amplifying signal. In the presence of target exosomes, the SNAs can be attached to the microplate by the bridge effect of exosomes, resulting in the trigger of HCR. This process is accompanied by the formation of abundant G-quadruplex/hemin DNAzyme, enabling the visual quantitative analysis of exosomes. Featured with the dual amplification of SNAs and HCR, the proposed aptasensor achieved a considerable detection limit of 50 particles/μL. The practicability of this method was further verified by testing the different clinical samples. Given the ability of the aptasensor to visually detect exosomes in scenarios lacking instruments and resources, we believe that the aptasensor can be serve as a potential on-site test for liquid biopsy.