Entropy-driven reactions in living cells for assay let-7a microRNA

• Published in: Analytica chimica acta Vol. 949; pp. 53 - 58
• Main Authors: Zhang, Kai, Wang, Ke, Zhu, Xue, Xie, Minhao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.01.2017; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: A549 Cells; Amplification; Amplification method; Assaying; Biological Assay; Biomarkers; Cells; Cells (biology); Entropy; Entropy-driven; Heat of reaction; Humans; Limit of Detection; Living cells; Medical research; MicroRNAs; MicroRNAs - analysis; miRNA; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; miRNA; Living cells; Entropy-driven; Amplification method
• ISSN: 0003-2670; 1873-4324
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2016.10.034

Imaging of microRNA (miRNA) in living cells could facilitate the monitoring of the expression and distribution of miRNA and research on miRNA-related diseases. Given the low expression levels and even down-regulation of cellular miRNA that is associated with some diseases, enzyme-free amplification strategies are imperative for intracellular miRNA assay. In this work, we report an entropy-driven reaction for amplification assay miRNA with a detection limit of 0.27 pM. The resulting signal amplification provides excellent recognition and signal enhancement of specific miRNAs in living cells. This method supplies accurate information regarding cellular miRNA-related biological events and provides a new tool for highly sensitive and simultaneous imaging of multiple low-level biomarkers, thereby improving the accuracy of early disease diagnosis. [Display omitted] •An enzyme-free amplification strategy for microRNA assay is reported.•This strategy is employed to image miRNA in single cells by using entropy-driven reaction.•The method provides a high sensitivity with a detection limit of 0.27 pM of Let-7a.