Photonic Barcodes Combining Branched Hybridization Chain Reaction for Multiplex Quantification of Bladder Cancer MicroRNAs

Bladder cancer is the most common malignant tumor of the urinary system with substantial therapy cost and mortality. Recently, quantification and multiplex detection of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) from human serum has opened a new avenue for efficient diagnosis of bladder cancer. Herein, a novel multiplex platform is designed toward bladder cancer-related miRNAs detection by integrating photonic crystal (PhC) barcodes with the branched hybridization chain reaction (B-HCR). PhC barcodes possess constant characteristic reflection peaks originating from the highly ordered microstructure and thus exhibit vivid structural colors as the encoding elements. B-HCR is an isothermal enzyme-free amplification strategy on the basis of hybridization chain reaction (HCR), which presents a higher amplification efficiency. By integrating the vivid structural colors of PhC barcodes with the isothermal amplification of B-HCR, this platform shows an acceptable accuracy, reproducibility, and high sensitivity for multiplex detection of low-abundance miRNAs. Moreover, the results are consistent with conventional qRT-PCR in the serum specimens. Therefore, this platform may provide a new approach for the clinical diagnosis of bladder cancer.