Recently, a research team led by Prof. WANG Hongzhi from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed a programmable plasmonic ring biosensor, MetaRing, capable of rapidly and accurately identifying paclitaxel sensitivity in breast cancer patients.
The study was published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics.
Rapid and precise assessment of drug sensitivity is essential for optimizing chemotherapy and improving patient outcomes. However, conventional chemosensitivity tests are often slow, require large sample volumes, and struggle to handle complex biological samples.
To address these challenges, the researchers designed the MetaRing biosensor based on the coffee-ring effect. By carefully controlling nanoparticle concentration and evaporation temperature, the platform achieves deterministic nanoparticle assembly, forming hierarchical structures with dense and stable nanogaps. This design enhances detection stability and robustness across a variety of biological environments, including water, buffer solutions, protein-rich media, and complex cell lysates.
The platform integrated surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to capture molecular "fingerprints" with high sensitivity, enabling rapid acquisition of metabolic spectra that reflect tumor cell responses to paclitaxel. This approach required only trace amounts of biological samples and eliminated the need for labeling or cell culture expansion.
Experimental results showed that MetaRing could reliably identify paclitaxel sensitivity signatures in drug-resistant breast cancer cell lines, xenograft models, and patient-derived biopsy tissues. When paired with a lightweight one-dimensional convolutional neural network, the system completed drug sensitivity assessments within 10 minutes, achieving over 92% classification accuracy in a clinical cohort.
According to the team, this study offers a practical strategy for rapidly evaluating paclitaxel sensitivity, supporting personalized chemotherapy and addressing challenges posed by inter-patient variability and tumor heterogeneity, with strong potential for clinical translation.
Schematic illustration of the MetaRing platform for detecting paclitaxel treatment sensitivity in breast cancer.(Image by HUANG Guangyao)
