Silver Nanoclusters-Decorated Porous Microneedles Coupling Duplex-Specific Nuclease-Assisted Signal Amplification for Sampling and Detection of MicroRNA in Interstitial Fluid

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) in dermal interstitial fluid (ISF) have recently been recognized as clinically promising biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer. However, the detection poses significant challenges, primarily due to the low abundance of miRNAs and the limitations of current sampling techniques. To address this issue, we develop novel porous microneedles (PMNs) array-based sensor composed of poly(vinyl alcohol) porous hydrogel and DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) to facilitate the enrichment and highly sensitive detection of ISF miRNA. Leveraging the capillary action facilitated by its unique porous structure and the swelling properties of the hydrogel, the PMNs array can efficiently extract 2.7 ± 0.3 mg of ISF within 5 min. Additionally, the interconnected pores within the PMNs array contribute to an increased specific surface area, thereby offering a convenient platform for the decoration of DNA-templated AgNCs. The immobilized large amount of AgNCs effectively capture the target miRNA from the extracted ISF, resulting in miRNA-induced fluorescence quenching of AgNCs. Subsequently, the introduction of the duplex-specific nuclease leads to the cleavage of DNA in DNA-RNA heteroduplexes, which release miRNA to interact with other AgNCs. This process of target recycling triggers a further reduction in fluorescence intensity, thereby enabling sensitive detection of the low-abundant miRNA down to 1.6 pM. Both <i>in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i> experiments validate the efficacy of the AgNCs immobilized PMNs array for the detection of miRNA biomarkers in ISF within minutes. These results indicate that the proposed PMNs array-based sensor holds great potential for the development of noninvasive personalized diagnostic strategies.