Probing Intracellular Biomarkers and Mediators of Cell Activation Using Nanosensors and Bioorthogonal Chemistry

Nanomaterials offer unique physical properties that make them ideal biosensors for scant cell populations. However, specific targeting of nanoparticles to intracellular proteins has been challenging. Here, we describe a technique to improve intracellular biomarker sensing using nanoparticles that is based on bioorthogonal chemistry. Using trans-cyclooctene-modified affinity ligands that are administered to semipermeabilized cells and revealed by cycloaddition reaction with tetrazine-conjugated nanoparticles, we demonstrate site-specific amplification of nanomaterial binding. We also show that this technique is capable of sensing protein biomarkers and phosho-protein signal mediators, both within the cytosol and nucleus, via magnetic or fluorescent modalities. We expect the described method will have broad applications in nanomaterial-based diagnostics and therapeutics.