Capillarity-Driven Enrichment and Hydrodynamic Trapping of Trace Nucleic Acids by Plasmonic Cavity Membrane for Rapid and Sensitive Detections

Keumrai Whang; Junwon Min; Yonghee Shin; Inhyeok Hwang; Hyunjoo Lee; Taejin Kwak; Ju A La; Sungbong Kim; Dongchoul Kim; Luke P Lee; Taewook Kang

doi:10.1002/adma.202403896

Capillarity-Driven Enrichment and Hydrodynamic Trapping of Trace Nucleic Acids by Plasmonic Cavity Membrane for Rapid and Sensitive Detections

Adv Mater. 2024 Apr 25:e2403896. doi: 10.1002/adma.202403896. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Keumrai Whang^{1

2}, Junwon Min³, Yonghee Shin^{1

2}, Inhyeok Hwang^{1

2}, Hyunjoo Lee³, Taejin Kwak³, Ju A La^{1

2}, Sungbong Kim^{2

4}, Dongchoul Kim³, Luke P Lee^{5

6

7}, Taewook Kang^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul, 04107, South Korea.
² Institute of Integrated Biotechnology, Sogang University, Seoul, 04107, South Korea.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sogang University, Seoul, 04107, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Military Academy, Seoul, 01805, South Korea.
⁵ Harvard Institute of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
⁶ Department of Bioengineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA.
⁷ Institute of Quantum Biophysics, Department of Biophysics, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwonsi, Gyeonggi-do, 16419, South Korea.

PMID: 38663435
DOI: 10.1002/adma.202403896

Abstract

Small-reactor-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has attracted considerable attention. A significant number of tiny reactors must be prepared in parallel to capture, amplify, and accurately quantify few target genes in clinically relevant large volume, which, however, requires sophisticated microfabrication and longer sample-to-answer time. Here, single plasmonic cavity membrane is reported that not only enriches and captures few nucleic acids by taking advantage of both capillarity and hydrodynamic trapping but also quickly amplifies them for sensitive plasmonic detection. The plasmonic cavity membrane with few nanoliters in a void volume is fabricated by self-assembling gold nanorods with SiO₂ tips. Simulations reveal that hydrodynamic stagnation between the SiO₂ tips is mainly responsible for the trapping of the nucleic acid in the membrane. Finally, it is shown that the plasmonic cavity membrane is capable of enriching severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genes up to 20 000-fold within 1 min, amplifying within 3 min, and detecting the trace genes as low as a single copy µL^-1. It is anticipated that this work not only expands the utility of PCR but also provides an innovative way of the enrichment and detection of trace biomolecules in a variety of point-of-care testing applications.

Keywords: capillarity‐driven enrichment; hydrodynamic trapping; plasmonic amplification and detection; plasmonic cavity membrane; trace nucleic acids.

Abstract

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