High Spatiotemporal Imaging of Protein Secretion During Cell to Cell Communication via Integrative Biosensing Nanoplasmonic Array

Abstract

Protein secretion underpins diverse physiological processes in cell-to-cell communication, tissue homeostasis, and the onset of diseases. Mapping the secretomes from paired cells provides avenues for understanding their interactions. However, prevailing approaches yield only semi-quantitative endpoint data, lacking real-time and quantitative information. Here, we present real time spatiotemporal imaging of extracellular secretions from individual cells via a high-throughput integrative biosensing nanoplasmonic array (iBNA) with a microfluidic chamber. The self-assembled iBNA, composed of precisely arranged gold nanostructures and functionalized with aptamer receptors, enhances plasmonic resonance and significantly improves the spatiotemporal resolution and specificity of interleukin-6 (IL-6) imaging, surpassing gold-standard techniques. The molecular recognition of iBNA, and sensing mechanism exploits biomolecular surface binding-induced localized plasmonic resonance shifts, correlating with cytokine concentration and enabling optoelectronic detection of the transmitted light. Using this approach, we achieve spatiotemporally resolved visualization of IL-6 secretion dynamics at the single-cell level and unveil the temporal and polarized variation of cell-cell communications. This transformative platform holds significant potential to advance immunological research, cellular biology, and diagnostic applications for infectious diseases by enabling unprecedented insights into the spatiotemporal patterns of protein secretion in individual cells.