Label‐Free Single Nanoparticle Identification and Characterization in Demanding Environment, Including Infectious Emergent Virus

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Vol. 20; no. 16; pp. e2304564 - n/a
• Main Authors: Nguyen, Minh‐Chau, Bonnaud, Peter, Dibsy, Rayane, Maucort, Guillaume, Lyonnais, Sébastien, Muriaux, Delphine, Bon, Pierre
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.04.2024; Wiley-VCH Verlag
• Subjects: Holography; infectious virus imaging; Labels; label‐free single nanoparticle identification; Life Sciences; Metal Nanoparticles; Microbiology and Parasitology; Microscopy - methods; Nanoparticles; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Optical noise; Optics; Physics; quantitative phase microscopy; Refractivity; single nanoobject metrology; Virology; Viruses; quantitative phase microscopy; label‐free single nanoparticle identification; infectious virus imaging; single nanoobject metrology; Holography Digital holography; Quantitative phase Imaging; Sars-Cov-2 virus; HIV-1 virus; Label-free Quantitation
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202304564

Unknown particle screening—including virus and nanoparticles—are keys in medicine, industry, and also in water pollutant determination. Here, RYtov MIcroscopy for Nanoparticles Identification (RYMINI) is introduced, a staining‐free, non‐invasive, and non‐destructive optical approach that is merging holographic label‐free 3D tracking with high‐sensitivity quantitative phase imaging into a compact optical setup. Dedicated to the identification and then characterization of single nano‐object in solution, it is compatible with highly demanding environments, such as level 3 biological laboratories, with high resilience to external source of mechanical and optical noise. Metrological characterization is performed at the level of each single particle on both absorbing and transparent particles as well as on immature and infectious HIV, SARS‐CoV‐2 and extracellular vesicles in solution. The capability of RYMINI to determine the nature, concentration, size, complex refractive index and mass of each single particle without knowledge or model of the particles’ response is demonstrated. The system surpasses 90% accuracy for automatic identification between dielectric/metallic/biological nanoparticles and ≈80% for intraclass chemical determination of metallic and dielectric. It falls down to 50–70% for type determination inside the biological nanoparticle's class. Label‐free single nanoparticle identification and quantitative characterization are unlocked through the study of Brownian motion and highly‐stable quantitative phase and intensity optical imaging. The detection and analysis of nanoparticles in solution are demonstrated, including infectious virus (HIV‐1, SARS‐CoV‐2) observed in level‐3 confined laboratory.