Detection of YAP1 and AR-V7 mRNA for Prostate Cancer prognosis using an ISFET Lab-On-Chip platform

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common cause of male cancer-related death worldwide. The gold standard of treatment for advanced PCa is androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). However, eventual failure of ADT is common and leads to lethal metastatic castration resistant PCa (mCRPC). As such, the detection of relevant biomarkers in the blood for drug resistance in mCRPC patients could lead to personalized treatment options. mRNA detection is often limited by the low specificity of qPCR assays which are restricted to specialised laboratories. Here, we present a novel reversetranscription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay and have demonstrated its capability for sensitive detection of AR-V7 and YAP1 RNA (3x101 RNA copies per reaction). This work presents a foundation for the detection of circulating mRNA in PCa on a non-invasive Lab-on-chip (LoC) device for use at point-of-care. This technique was implemented onto a Lab-on-Chip platform integrating an array of chemical sensors (ion-sensitive field-effect transistors - ISFETs) for real-time detection of RNA. Detection of RNA presence was achieved through the translation of chemical signals into electrical readouts. Validation of this technique was conducted with rapid detection (<15 min) of extracted RNA from prostate cancer cell lines 22Rv1s and DU145s.