A DNAzyme dual-feedback autocatalytic exponential amplification biocircuit for microRNA imaging in living cells

Autocatalytic biocircuit are powerful tools for analysing intracellular biomarkers, but these tools are constrained by limitations in amplification capacity and intracellular delivery efficiency. In this work, we developed a DNAzyme-based dual-feedback autocatalytic exponential amplification biocircuit sustained by a honeycomb MnO2 nanosponge (EDA2@hMNS) for live-cell imaging of intracellular low-abundance microRNAs (miRNA). The EDA2 biocircuit comprises a blocked DNAzyme (b-DNAzyme), a Fuel strand and a Substrate strand. In the EDA2 biocircuit, target miRNAs are recycled and feedback for rounds of DNAzymatic amplification, and the DNAzymatic reactions continuously generate target miRNA analogues for dual-feedback to achieve multiple parallel cascade DNAzymatic reactions that improve amplification capacity substantially. In addition, the hMNS ensures high loading and delivery efficiency of biocircuit probes into living cells and also provides sufficient Mn2+ DNAzyme cofactor from in situ decomposition by intracellular glutathione (GSH). The EDA2@hMNS realized a detection limit of 17 pM, which is 288-fold lower than the b-DNAzyme lacking the DNAzymatic amplification. These results demonstrate the great promise for this critical tool in analysing low-abundance biomarkers and cancer diagnostics.

DNAzyme-Amplified Cascade Catalytic Hairpin Assembly Nanosystem for Sensitive MicroRNA Imaging in Living Cells

Sensitive imaging of microRNAs (miRNAs) in living cells is significant for accurate cancer clinical diagnosis and prognosis research studies, but it is challenged by inefficient intracellular delivery, instability of nucleic acid probes, and limited amplification efficiency. Herein, we engineered a DNAzyme-amplified cascade catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA)-based nanosystem (DCC) that overcomes these challenges and improves the imaging sensitivity. This enzyme-free amplification nanosystem is based on the sequential activation of DNAzyme amplification and CHA. MnO2 nanosheets were used as nanocarriers for the delivery of nucleic acid probes, which can resist the degradation by nucleases and supply Mn2+ for the DNAzyme reaction. After entering into living cells, the MnO2 nanosheets can be decomposed by intracellular glutathione (GSH) and release the loaded nucleic acid probes. In the presence of target miRNA, the locking strand (L) was hybridized with target miRNA, and the DNAzyme was released, which then cleaved the substrate hairpin (H1). This cleavage reaction resulted in the formation of a trigger sequence (TS) that can activate CHA and recover the fluorescence readout. Meanwhile, the DNAzyme was released from the cleaved H1 and bound to other H1 for new rounds of DNAzyme-based amplification. The TS was also released from CHA and involved in the new cycle of CHA. By this DCC nanosystem, low-abundance target miRNA can activate many DNAzyme and generate numerous TS for CHA, resulting in sensitive and selective analysis of miRNAs with a limit of detection of 5.4 pM, which is 18-fold lower than that of the traditional CHA system. This stable, sensitive, and selective nanosystem holds great potential for miRNA analysis, clinical diagnosis, and other related biomedical applications.

High-fidelity imaging of intracellular microRNA via a bioorthogonal nanoprobe

The spatiotemporal visualization of intracellular microRNA (miRNA) plays a critical role in the diagnosis and treatment of malignant disease. Although DNAzyme-based biosensing has been regarded as the most promising candidate, inefficient analytical resolution is frequently encountered. Here, we propose a bioorthogonal approach toward high-fidelity imaging of intracellular miRNA by designing a multifunctional nanoprobe that integrates MnO₂ nanosheet-mediated intracellular delivery and activation by a fat mass and obesity-associated protein (FTO)-switched positive feedback. MnO₂ nanosheets facilitate nanoprobe delivery and intracellular DNAzyme cofactors are released upon glutathione-triggered reduction. Meanwhile, an m6A-caged DNAzyme probe could be bioorthogonally activated by intracellular FTO to eliminate potential off-target activation. Therefore, the activated DNAzyme probe and substrate probe could recognize miRNA to perform cascade signal amplification in the initiation of the release of Mn²⁺ from MnO₂ nanosheets. This strategy realized high-fidelity imaging of intracellular aberrant miRNA within tumor cells with a satisfactory detection limit of 9.7 pM, paving the way to facilitate clinical tumor diagnosis and prognosis monitoring.

Intracellular miRNA Imaging Based on a Self-Powered and Self-Feedback Entropy-Driven Catalyst-DNAzyme Circuit

DNAzyme-based signal amplification circuits promote the advances in low-abundant miRNA imaging in living cells. However, due to the insufficient cofactor in living cells and unsustainable target utilization, self-powered and self-feedback DNAzyme amplification circuits have rarely been achieved. Here, a MnO₂ nanosheet-mediated self-powered and self-feedback entropy-driven catalyst (EDC)-DNAzyme nanoprobe (MnPFEDz) was demonstrated for sensitive imaging of intracellular microRNA (miRNA). In this strategy, MnPFEDz was formed by adsorbing EDC modules and substrate probes on MnO₂ nanosheets. The MnO₂ nanosheets acted not only as glutathione (GSH)-responsive nanocarriers for efficient delivery of DNA probes but also as a DNAzyme cofactor supplier to power the DNAzyme biocatalysis and promote signal transduction in a feedback way. When entering the cells, GSH could decompose MnO₂ nanosheets to generate numerous Mn²⁺ ion cofactors, leading to the release of DNA probes. Subsequently, the target miRNA initiated EDC cycles to generate amplified fluorescence signals and exposed the complete DNAzyme. Meanwhile, each of the exposed DNAzyme then cleaved the substrate probes with the help of Mn²⁺ ion cofactors and released a new trigger analogue for the next round of EDC cycles, initiating additional fluorescence signals in a feedback way. As a multiple signal amplification strategy, the MnPFEDz nanoprobe facilitated the effective detection of intracellular molecules with enhanced sensitivity and provided a versatile strategy for the construction of self-powered and self-feedback DNA circuits in living cells.

Dual-Locked DNAzyme Platform for In Vitro and In Vivo Discrimination of Cancer Cells

Imaging of tumor-associated microRNAs (miRNAs) can provide abundant information for cancer diagnosis, whereas the occurrence of trace amounts of miRNAs in normal cells inevitably causes an undesired false-positive signal in the discrimination of cancer cells during miRNA imaging. In this study, we propose a dual-locked (D-locked) platform consisting of the enzyme/miRNA-D-locked DNAzyme sensor and the honeycomb MnO₂ nanosponge (hMNS) nanocarrier for highly specific cancer cell imaging. For a proof-of-concept demonstration, apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) and miR-21 were chosen as key models. The hMNS nanocarrier can efficiently release the D-locked DNAzyme sensor in living cells due to the decomposition of hMNS by glutathione, which can also supply Mn²⁺ for DNAzyme cleavage. Ascribing to the smart design of the D-locked DNAzyme sensor, the fluorescence signal can only be generated by the synergistic response of APE1 and miR-21 that are overexpressed in cancer cells. Compared with the miRNA single-locked DNAzyme sensor and the small-molecule (ATP)/miRNA D-locked DNAzyme sensor, the proposed enzyme (APE1)/miRNA D-locked DNAzyme sensor exhibited 2.6-fold and 2.4-fold higher discrimination ratio (F_cancer/F_normal) for cancer cell discrimination, respectively. Owing to the superior performance, the D-locked strategy can selectively generate a fluorescence signal in cancer cells, facilitating accurate discrimination of cancer both in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, this D-locked platform is easily adaptable toward other target molecules by redesigning the DNA sequences. The outstanding performance and expansibility of this D-locked platform holds promising prospects for cancer diagnosis and related biomedical applications.

DNA Tetrahedron-Based MNAzyme for Sensitive Detection of microRNA with Elemental Tagging

Heterogeneous immunoassay based on magnetic separation is commonly used in inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS)-based biomedical analysis with elemental labeling. However, the functionalized magnetic beads (MBs) often suffer from non-specific adsorption and random distribution of the functional probes. To overcome these problems, DNA tetrahedron (DT)-functionalized MBs were designed and further conjugated with substrate modified Au NPs (Sub-AuNP). Based on the prepared MB-DT-AuNP probes, an MB-DT based multicomponent nucleic acid enzyme (MNAzyme) system involving Au NPs as the elemental tags was proposed for highly sensitive quantification of miRNA-155 by ICP-MS. Target miRNA would trigger the assembly of MNAzyme, and Sub-AuNP would be cleaved from the MB-DT-AuNP probe, resulting in a cyclic amplification. Single-stranded DNA-functionalized MB (MB-ssDNA)-AuNP probes were prepared as well. Comparatively, the amount of Au NPs grafted onto MB-ssDNA-AuNP probes was higher than that grafted onto MB-DT-AuNP probes. Meanwhile, a higher signal-to-noise ratio was obtained by using MB-DT-AuNP probes over MB-ssDNA-AuNP probes in the MNAzyme system. Under the optimal experimental conditions, the limit of detection for target miRNA obtained by using MB-DT-AuNP probes was 1.15 pmol L^-1, improved by 23 times over that obtained by the use of MB-ssDNA-AuNP probes. The proposed MB-DT-MNAzyme-ICP-MS method was applied to the analysis of miRNA-155 in serum samples, and recoveries of 86.7-94.6% were obtained. This method is featured with high sensitivity, good specificity, and simple operation, showing a great application potential in biomedical analysis.

Ni/Fe layered double hydroxide nanosheet/G-quadruplex as a new complex DNAzyme with highly enhanced peroxidase-mimic activity

A novel and low-cost DNAzyme, Ni/Fe layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheet/G-quadruplex (without hemin) with enhanced peroxidase-mimic activity was designed. The catalytic mechanism was investigated. The detection of Cu(II) in actual serum samples could be realized sensitively via this efficient DNAzyme-based method.

Target-swiped DNA lock for electrochemical sensing of miRNAs based on DNAzyme-assisted primer-generation amplification

As an extremely important post-transcriptional regulator, miRNAs are involved in a variety of crucial biological processes, and the abnormal expressions of miRNAs are closely related to a variety of diseases. In this work, for the first time, we designed a nucleic acid lock nanostructure for specific detection of miRNA-21, which changes the self-structure to "active conformation" by binding the target, in order to generate triggers to initiate the subsequent reaction. Emphatically, this flexible nucleic acid lock is capable of self-cleaving without the assistance of external component, overcoming the disadvantages of the complex design and requiring protease assistance in traditional nanostructure. Moreover, the combination of DNAzyme and RCA technology not only greatly improves the efficiency of signal amplification but also enables primer generation to simultaneous cascade RCA amplification. Additionally, the electrochemical detection technology based on silver nanoclusters overcomes the shortcomings of traditional detection methods such as low sensitivity and complex operation. The detection limit achieved was 9.3 aM with a wide dynamic response ranging from 10 aM to 100 pM (at the DPV peak of - 0.5 V), which is comparable to most of the reported studies. Therefore, our work provided an ultra-sensitive way for the detection of miRNAs using nanostructures and revealed an effective means for disease theranostics and cancer diagnosis. In this work, for the first time, we designed a nucleic acid lock nanostructure based on its self-structural transformation for the specific detection of miRNA. And the combination of DNAzyme and cascade RCA reaction greatly improved the signal amplification efficiency.

3D DNA Scaffold-Assisted Dual Intramolecular Amplifications for Multiplexed and Sensitive MicroRNA Imaging in Living Cells

The simultaneous live-cell imaging of multiple intracellular and disease-related microRNAs (miRNAs) with low abundances is highly important to enhance specificity and accuracy for disease diagnosis. On the basis of the improved cell internalization and accelerated reaction kinetics, we develop a three-dimensional (3D) DNA nanoprobe that integrates intramolecular DNAzyme (intra-Dz) and catalytic hairpin assembly (intra-CHA) amplifications to simultaneously monitor multiple miRNAs in living cells. The sensing components are loaded on a DNA scaffold via the sticky-end hybridization of the DNA sequences to increase the local concentrations of the signal probes. The miRNA-21 and miRNA-155 target sequences can trigger intra-Dz and -CHA amplifications on the nanoprobes to show significantly amplified and distinct fluorescence at different wavelengths for simultaneously monitoring low levels of miRNAs. Real-time fluorescence microscopy reveals that such a 3D DNA nanoprobe design with the intra-Dz and -CHA amplifications can accelerate the reaction rate compared to that of the conventional free Dz and CHA because of the increased local concentrations of the sensing components. Importantly, the 3D DNA nanoprobe has desirable stability and biocompatibility and can be readily delivered into living cells to achieve multiplexed and highly sensitive sensing of intracellular miRNA-155 and miRNA-21 sequences. With the demonstration of its intracellular application, the developed 3D DNA nanoprobe thus holds promising potential for biological studies and accurate disease diagnosis.

A light-up "G-quadruplex nanostring" for label-free and selective detection of miRNA via duplex-specific nuclease mediated tandem rolling circle amplification

MicroRNA (miRNA) has emerged as a promising genetic marker for cancer diagnosis and therapy because its expression level is closely related to the progression of malignant diseases. Herein, a label-free and selective fluorescence platform was proposed for miRNA based on light-up "G-quadruplex nanostring" via duplex-specific nuclease (DSN) mediated tandem rolling circle amplification (RCA). First, a long DNA generated from upstream RCA was designed with the antisense sequences for miR-21 and downstream RCA primer. Upon recognizing miR-21, the resulting DNA-RNA permitted DSN digestion and triggered downstream two-way RCA, and generation of abundant "G-quadruplex nanostring" binding with ZnPPIX for label-free fluorescent responses. In our strategy, the strong preference of DSN for perfectly matched DNA/RNA ensures its excellent selectivity. The developed method generated wide linear response with LOD of 1.019 fM. Additionally, the miR-21 levels in cell extracts have been evaluated, revealing the utility of this tool for biomedical research and clinical diagnosis.

Rapid and colorimetric detection of nucleic acids based on entropy-driven circuit and DNAzyme-mediated autocatalytic reactions

In this work, a novel, rapid and enzyme-free colorimetric biosensor for the detection of nucleic acids has been developed based on entropy-driven (EDC) circuit and DNAzyme-mediated autocatalytic reactions. On sensing the target DNA, the EDC reaction could be initiated and the intact Mg2+-dependent DNAzyme was formed in the reaction product; then, a "mimic target" DNA was generated during the cleavage process of DNAzyme, which in turn catalyzed the EDC reaction corresponding to an autocatalytic process. Meanwhile, numerous G-quadruplex structures were released and further interacted with hemin to form peroxidase-mimicking DNAzyme, inducing a remarkably amplified colorimetric signal. This autocatalytic EDC (AEDC) sensing system exhibited a linear relationship in the range from 20 pM to 10 nM with a detection limit of 10.2 pM. More importantly, benefitting from the Mg2+-dependent DNAzyme-mediated autocatalytic reaction, the detection time (20 min) was significantly reduced compared to that for the reported EDC strategies. In addition, this sensing system has been applied for the detection of target DNA in human serum samples, indicating that it is promising for the on-site and real-time detection of nucleic acids in biomedical research and disease diagnosis.

DNAzyme-Based Target-Triggered Rolling-Circle Amplification for High Sensitivity Detection of microRNAs

MicroRNAs regulate and control the growth and development of cells and can play the role of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, which are involved in the occurrence and development of cancers. In this study, DNA fragments obtained by target-induced rolling-circle amplification were constructed to complement with self-cleaving deoxyribozyme (DNAzyme) and release fluorescence biomolecules. This sensing approach can affect multiple signal amplification permitting fluorescence detection of microRNAs at the pmol L⁻¹ level hence affording a simple, highly sensitive, and selective low cost detection platform.

Catalytic hairpin assembly-based double-end DNAzyme cascade-feedback amplification for sensitive fluorescence detection of HIV-1 DNA

In this work, a simple all-nucleic acid cascade-feedback amplification strategy for homogeneous and protein enzyme-free fluorescence detection of HIV-1 related DNA (HIV-1 DNA) has been proposed by integrating catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) circuit with double-end Mg²⁺-dependent DNAzyme autocatalytic feedback amplification. Here, the active double-end DNAzyme assemblies were derived from target-catalyzed CHA circuit, which further circularly cleaved the ribonucleotide-containing quenched fluorogenic hairpin substrates to generate distinctly amplified fluorescence signal. Meanwhile, the released quencher-labeled fragments as target DNA analogues were also able to autocatalyze CHA-DNAzyme reaction process, thus improving the determination sensitivity of HIV-1 DNA. The result demonstrated that the fluorescence intensity increment of double-end DNAzyme was over 3 times higher than that of single-end DNAzyme. The sensing method displayed a good linear range from 1 pM to 2 nM with a detectable minimum concentration of 1 pM and high specificity towards different mismatched target DNAs. Moreover, the practical application potential of the proposed method for target DNA detection in complex biological matrices was also assessed. Considering the appealing feature of programmable nucleic acids in CHA-DNAzyme sensing platform, the current strategy may provide a prospective design for detection of broad-spectrum nucleic acid biomarkers.

Colorimetric and fluorescent dual-mode detection of microRNA based on duplex-specific nuclease assisted gold nanoparticle amplification

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are attractive candidates for biomarkers for early cancer diagnosis, and play vital roles in physiological and pathological processes. In this work, we developed a colorimetric and fluorescent dual-mode sensor for miRNA detection based on the optical properties of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and the duplex-specific nuclease (DSN)-assisted signal amplification technique. In brief, FAM labelled hairpin probes (HPs) were immobilized on AuNPs, and fluorescence was efficiently quenched by the vicinity of the fluorophores to the AuNPs surface. In the presence of target miRNAs, the HPs could specifically hybridize with miRNAs and the DNA strand in the DNA/RNA heteroduplexes could be subsequently hydrolyzed by DSN. As a result, numbers of fluorophores were released into the solution, resulting in obvious fluorescence signal recovery. Meanwhile, the target miRNAs were able to participate in other hybridization reactions. With the DSN-assisted signal amplification technique, lots of gold nanoparticles were produced with short-chain DNA on their surface, which could aggregate in salt solution and result in a colorimetric detection. The proposed dual-mode strategy offers a sensitive, accurate and selective detection method for miRNAs. One reason is that the stem of the HPs was elaborately designed to avoid hydrolyzation by DSN under optimal conditions, which ensures a relatively low background and high sensitivity. The other is that the dual-mode strategy is more beneficial for enhancing the accuracy and reproducibility of the measurements. Moreover, the unique selective-cutting ability and single-base mismatch differentiation capability of the DSN also give rise to a satisfactory selectivity. This demonstrated that the developed method could quantitatively detect miR-21 down to 50 pM with a linear calibration range from 50 pM to 1 nM, and the analytical assay of target miRNAs in cell lysate samples revealed its great potential for application in biomedical research and clinical diagnostics.