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Design of a no-wash colorimetric biosensor for the detection of the cancer biomarker Mdm2 with plasmonic nanoparticles

par Retout, Maurice
Président du jury Dubois, Frank
Promoteur Bruylants, Gilles
Publication Non publié, 2020-11-13

Thèse de doctorat

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Résumé :

Today, development of accurate early diagnosis of cancers thus became the number one challenge of medicine during the 21st century as the current techniques relies on imaging methods that suffer from low sensitivity and misdiagnosis.For these reasons, in this work, we aimed at developing a no-wash colorimetric biosensor for the detection of the oncoprotein Mdm2. Indeed, abnormal levels of Mdm2 could be related to the early formation of tumors.This thesis is devoted to the conception of a no-wash colorimetric biosensor for the detection of the oncoprotein Mdm2. This work can be divided in four parts:(i) The detection strategy and the design of the recognition elements (Chapter I).(ii) The conjugation of gold nanoparticles with the recognition elements (Chapter II, III, IV, V and VI).(iii) The modification of the metallic core of the nanoparticles (Chapter VII).(iv) The use of the optimized biosensor for the detection of Mdm2 (Chapter VIII).In the first part, we investigated the sensing strategy. An aggregation-based assay with plasmonic nanoparticles was selected, as the detection signal is a change of color of the suspension that can be observed to the naked eye or by UV-Vis spectroscopy. We designed the recognition elements, two peptide aptamers coming from endogenous proteins p53 and p14, and we grafted them separately on two batches of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) via thiol end-groups. We used these latter for the detection of various concentrations of Mdm2 in buffer using our dual-trapping strategy with these two batches of functionalized AuNPs. We demonstrated that both peptides are able to interact with Mdm2 even after grafting onto the particles and that this detection strategy is highly specific. However, this first sensor presented some drawbacks, such as a poor colloidal stability of the AuNPs and a limited dynamic range.With the aim to encompass these issues we investigated, in the second part of this thesis, alternative strategies to conjugate the peptides to the particles. We investigated the functionalization of the particles with stabilizing ligands such as thiolated poly(ethyleneglycol) (HS-PEG). We first studied their simultaneous grafting with the peptides on the AuNPs. We observed that grafting HS-PEGs and peptides side-by-side allowed to control the density of peptides conjugated to the AuNPS and increased drastically the stability of the particles. However, the detection of Mdm2 was strongly hindered by the presence of PEG on the particles carrying the p14 peptide. In a second step, we investigated the conjugation of peptides on the top of a PEG layer carrying functional groups (HS-PEG-X where X is a carboxylate or an alkyne). AuNPs were first functionalized with mixtures of HS-PEG and HS-PEG-X, and the peptides were conjugated to the functional groups via amide bond formation or CuAAC coupling in a second step. However, we noticed that it was not possible to control the composition of the mixed layer of PEGs and thus the peptide grafting density.Due to the lack of recognized protocols in the literature for (i) the determination of the chemical and colloidal stabilities of AuNPs and (ii) the determination of the proportion of different ligands in the organic coating of the particles, we developed two interesting tools. The first one was a convenient method allowing to evaluate by UV-Vis spectroscopy the efficiency of the citrate exchange process using thiol-, alkyne- or diazonium-ligands from gold nanoparticles synthesized via a Turkevich method. The second protocol was a method allowing to quantify the proportion of two HS-PEGs ligands grafted in mixtures onto gold nanoparticles via 1H NMR spectroscopy.As we couldn’t find conditions in which the proportion of multiple thiolated ligands can be controlled on AuNPs, we decided to investigate another functionalization strategy based on the use of calix4arene-diazonium salts.We first studied the grafting on AuNPs of calixarenes bearing four PEG chains at the level of their small rim, one ended by a carboxylic acid and three by a methoxy group. The calixarene layer allowed to obtain AuNPs covered by a very dense PEG shell (with more PEG chains/nm2 that what was obtained previously with thiol anchoring). In addition to that, this PEG shell was strongly anchored to the AuNPs, conferring them a very high colloidal and chemical robustness. We then combined the grafting of this calixarene with the grafting of another non-functional calixarene, bearing four PEG chains ended by a methoxy group, and we quantified the conjugation capacity of such particles by amide bond formation. We demonstrated that this strategy allows to (i) increase drastically the stability of the AuNPs and (ii) control the proportion of peptide conjugated at their surface. Finally, we showed that calixarene-coated AuNPs to which to the p53 and p14 peptides have been conjugated could be used to detect Mdm2.With the evidence that the peptide conjugation density could be controlled using calixarene-coated AuNPs, we investigated the simultaneous grafting of two functional calixarenes on particles: one bearing four carboxylic acids groups and one bearing four PEG chains ended by alkyne groups. We optimized the grafting of these calixarenes in mixed layers on the AuNPs as well as their conjugation. We demonstrated that the grafting of two functional calixarenes led to the production of bi-functional AuNPs, capable of conjugation with two molecules via two distinct chemistries.In the third part, we optimized the composition of the metallic core of the biosensor. As it is well known that silver nanoparticles express better optical properties than gold nanoparticles of the same size, we aimed to incorporate silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in the biosensor. This was a true challenge due to the intrinsic low chemical stability of silver nanoparticles that greatly limits their use in IVD. For this purpose, we developed an innovative in situ synthesis of silver nanoparticles in the presence of the calixarene-diazonium salts. After optimization of the synthesis, we observed that calixarenes bearing four carboxylic acids groups at the level of their small rim allowed the production of ultra-stable silver nanoparticles to which biomolecules can easily be conjugated. This in situ synthesis procedure even allowed us to produce alloy nanoparticles, with metallic cores whose composition could easily be tuned from pure silver to silver/gold alloys or pure gold. With this synthesis, the composition of the organic layer could also be easily tuned by using mixtures of calixarenes-diazonium salts.Finally, in the last part, we investigated the detection of Mdm2 with the optimized version of the biosensor, i.e. silver nanoparticles coated by a calixarene layer to which the p53 and p14 peptides were conjugated. With this novel class of nanoparticles, we could encompass the two initial drawbacks of the initial sensor. First, we were able to detect Mdm2 with a wider detection range and a lower limit. Secondly, the particles were sufficiently stable and robust to be dispersed in physiological fluids and we could detect Mdm2 in human serum without interference.