Integrated Electroporated‐Lysis Electrochemical Platform Enables Sensitive and Rapid EV Protein and miRNA Profiling Based on Multiplex‐Responsive CRISPR/Cas12a

Proteins and miRNAs in extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as crucial biomarkers for tumor diagnosis. While CRISPR/Cas12a-based platforms have shown great promise in nucleic acid and protein detection, their susceptibility to off-target activation and structural instability remains a significant limitation. Here, we have developed an electroporation-lysis electrochemical platform integrated with DNA cube-cage-locked CRISPR/Cas12a (DC-Cas12a), termed EL-DC-Cas12a. This platform utilizes an electric field to rapidly lyse EVs, releasing their internal proteins and miRNAs. These released molecules then activate the DC-Cas12a system, thereby triggering the displacement of two distinct crRNA/Cas12a complexes that correspond to EV proteins and miRNAs, respectively. These complexes then specifically recognize and cleave electrochemical probes, generating quantifiable electrochemical signals that enable synchronous and accurate analysis of the two biomarkers. The integrated workflow for EV lysis and detection can be completed within 40 min, greatly simplifying the overall operation. The detection limits (LOD) of this platform for EV PD-L1 protein and miR-1246 were 5.44 × 10<sup>4</sup> particles/mL and 3.59 × 10<sup>3</sup> particles/mL, respectively. Moreover, by applying machine learning algorithms to analyze the EV-associated proteins and miRNAs profiling, the platform demonstrated a diagnostic accuracy of 98.3% in distinguishing healthy donors from early-stage GC patients, and 99% in differentiating early-stage from advanced-stage GC patients in a clinical gastric cancer cohort. Therefore, the proposed platform offers a promising strategy for multiplexed detection of EV biomarkers and precise discrimination of GC.

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Small
Published
2026-01-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202513331
Primary Topic
Extracellular vesicles in disease
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Integrated Electroporated‐Lysis Electrochemical Platform Enables Sensitive and Rapid EV Protein and miRNA Profiling Based on Multiplex‐Responsive CRISPR/Cas12a

Xiaohe Zhang, Jennifer Zhang, Yuhang Guo, W S Li et al.
Small
Extracellular vesicles in disease
article

Integrated Electroporated‐Lysis Electrochemical Platform Enables Sensitive and Rapid EV Protein and miRNA Profiling Based on Multiplex‐Responsive CRISPR/Cas12a

Xiaohe Zhang, Jennifer Zhang, Yuhang Guo, W S Li, Shihua Luo, Yihang Tong, Yitong Zhu, Yide He, Lingqian Chang, Junfang Zhu, Jiezhen Pan, Bo Situ, Ling Li, Jieyan Liu, Yiping Zhu, Chao Yang, Wen Ma, Rui Fan, Xiaohui Yan
article en

Abstract

Proteins and miRNAs in extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as crucial biomarkers for tumor diagnosis. While CRISPR/Cas12a-based platforms have shown great promise in nucleic acid and protein detection, their susceptibility to off-target activation and structural instability remains a significant limitation. Here, we have developed an electroporation-lysis electrochemical platform integrated with DNA cube-cage-locked CRISPR/Cas12a (DC-Cas12a), termed EL-DC-Cas12a. This platform utilizes an electric field to rapidly lyse EVs, releasing their internal proteins and miRNAs. These released molecules then activate the DC-Cas12a system, thereby triggering the displacement of two distinct crRNA/Cas12a complexes that correspond to EV proteins and miRNAs, respectively. These complexes then specifically recognize and cleave electrochemical probes, generating quantifiable electrochemical signals that enable synchronous and accurate analysis of the two biomarkers. The integrated workflow for EV lysis and detection can be completed within 40 min, greatly simplifying the overall operation. The detection limits (LOD) of this platform for EV PD-L1 protein and miR-1246 were 5.44 × 10<sup>4</sup> particles/mL and 3.59 × 10<sup>3</sup> particles/mL, respectively. Moreover, by applying machine learning algorithms to analyze the EV-associated proteins and miRNAs profiling, the platform demonstrated a diagnostic accuracy of 98.3% in distinguishing healthy donors from early-stage GC patients, and 99% in differentiating early-stage from advanced-stage GC patients in a clinical gastric cancer cohort. Therefore, the proposed platform offers a promising strategy for multiplexed detection of EV biomarkers and precise discrimination of GC.

SmallVol. 22(13)
Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine (CN), Guangdong Medical College (CN), Dongguan University of Technology (CN), Nanfang Hospital (CN), Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine (CN), Affiliated Hospital of Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities (CN), Southern Medical University Shenzhen Hospital (CN), Marine Biomedical Research Institute of Qingdao (CN), Southern Medical University (CN), Beihang University (CN), Guangzhou Medical University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Southern Medical University, Nanfang Hospital, Shenzhen Municipal Science and Technology Innovation Council, National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars
Peace, Justice and strong institutions, Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 97%
Extracellular vesicles in disease
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