Label-free DNA detection using two-dimensional periodic relief grating as a visualized platform for diagnosis of breast cancer recurrence after surgery

In this study we fabricated a nanopillar array of silicon oxide, involving very-large-scale integration (VLSI) and reactive ion etching (RIE), as two-dimensional periodic relief gratings (2DPRGs) on Si surfaces. Thiolated oligonucleotide was successively immobilized on the thiol functionalized surfaces of 2DPRGs by disulfide bond as an optical probe to detect a human genomic DNA (hgDNA584), related to breast cancer recurrence after surgery, from a biological specimen. The oligonucleotide-bound 2DPRG alone produces insignificant structure change, but upon hybridization with hgDNA584 leads to a dramatic change of the pillar scale due to hgDNA584 filling inside the 2DPRG layers. The performance of the sensor was evaluated by capturing hgDNA584 on the oligonucleotide-bound 2DPRGs and measuring the effective refractive index (n_eff), resulting of color change from pure blue to red, observed by naked eyes along an incident angle of 20-30°. The surface-bound 2DPRG based assay with the chemoresponsive diffraction grating signal transduction scheme results in an experimentally simple DNA detection protocol, displaying attributes of both detection methodologies: the high sensitivity and selectivity afforded by 2DPRG probes and the experimental simplicity, and miniaturization potential provided by the diffraction-based sensing technology.