NANOPORE BIOSENSOR FOR QUANTIFICATION OF THE ISOMERS OF PLATELET-DERIVED GROWTH FACTOR PROTEIN

Our project’s goal is to use nanopore analysis to detect cancers from the expression of protein for early screenings of cancer. Preliminary work uses a nanopore chip to detect specific proteins. Our research targeted the platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) protein that is an important biomarker for certain cancers like leukemia and lymphoma. Discrimination between two isomers of the PDGF protein, PDGF AA and PDGF AB, was the target of experiments through the nanopore. For selectivity, an aptamer, a molecule made up of specific RNA nucleotides, was introduced in the solution. The aptamer had a very high affinity for PDGF AB, whereas it had almost no affinity for PDGF AA. Because aptamer attachment added more charge to the overall, it would result in different translocation profiles for the two isomers. These profiles will be used in rigorous analysis to quantify the two isomers of the protein, in the hopes of providing higher-level screenings of certain cancers.