Two-wheel drive-based DNA nanomachine and its sensing potential for highly sensitive analysis of cancer-related gene

• Published in: Biomaterials Vol. 100; pp. 110 - 117
• Main Authors: Xu, Jianguo, Wu, Zai-Sheng, Wang, Zhenmeng, Li, Hongling, Le, Jingqing, Jia, Lee
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2016
• Subjects: A549 Cells; Advanced Basic Science; Base Sequence; Biosensing Techniques - methods; Cancer-related gene; Dentistry; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Devices; DNA - chemistry; DNA - genetics; DNA nanomachine; DNA Primers - chemistry; DNA Primers - genetics; Fluorescence; Humans; Limit of Detection; Nanostructure; Nanotechnology; Neoplasms - genetics; Nucleic Acid Hybridization; Point Mutation; Polymerization; Recognition; Signal amplification; Strands; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 - genetics; Two-wheel drive; Wheels; Cancer-related gene; DNA nanomachine; Two-wheel drive; Signal amplification
• ISSN: 0142-9612; 1878-5905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2016.05.020

Abstract With the biological significance and important advances of nano-scale DNA devices, scientific activities have been directed toward developing molecular machinery. In this work, we present a novel two-wheel drive-based DNA nanomachine composed of one signaling recognition probe (SRP), one label-free recognition probe (LRP), and one driving primer (DP). Target DNA hybridization can activate LRP-based wheel driving by resorting to DP-mediated polymerization/nicking/displacement cycles. This in turn results in the accumulation of nicked strand 1 (NS1) that can initiate extended SRP-based wheel driving. As a result, the hairpin structure of SRP is stretched and pre-quenched fluorescence is restored. Meanwhile, lots of nicked strand 2 (NS2) are produced, which could hybridize perfectly with SRP and lead to further fluorescence amplification. It is worth noting that, because the nanomachine operation relies strongly on inputted target trigger, the unwanted background is completely eliminated. The detection limit of 1 pM and an excellent capability to recognize the single-base mutation were achieved. Significantly, the interrogating of target trigger extracted from cancer cells is already available, reflecting the potential for practical applications. As a proof-of-concept building, the unique analytical properties would significantly benefit the DNA nanomachines and reveal great promise in biochemical and biomedical studies.