Issue 9, 2016

Sensitive detection of intracellular RNA of human telomerase by using graphene oxide as a carrier to deliver the assembly element of hybridization chain reaction

Abstract

Since the level of human telomerase RNA (hTR) in tumor cells is higher than that in normal somatic cells, the quantitative assay of hTR is of significant importance in tumor diagnosis. Herein, graphene oxide (GO) was simultaneously exploited as a fluorescence quencher and a carrier of nucleic acid to successfully deliver two hairpin DNA probes of hybridization chain reaction (HCR) into the cancer cell for detecting telomerase RNA based on DNA nanoassembly of HCR. The sticky end of HCR probes could tightly absorb on the surface of GO, resulting in fluorescence quenching of the dye which was tagged at the sticky end of two hairpin probes. When faced with hTR, the fluorescence of DNA probes is subsequently recovered because hTR could trigger HCR to autonomous assembly of a DNA polymer which released from the GO and led to fluorescence recovery. Taking advantage of nucleic acid nanoassembly of HCR, this intracellular HCR strategy creates enormous signal amplification, and enables ultra-sensitive fluorescence imaging of hTR expression. By monitoring fluorescence change, human telomerase RNA could be specifically studied and this method can also be used for detecting single-base mutation. The GO-aided HCR strategy allowed us to sensitively detect hTR in a living cell, which holds great potential for analyzing other low-abundance biomolecules in living cells via HCR.

Graphical abstract: Sensitive detection of intracellular RNA of human telomerase by using graphene oxide as a carrier to deliver the assembly element of hybridization chain reaction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
28 Jan 2016
Accepted
14 Mar 2016
First published
14 Mar 2016

Analyst, 2016,141, 2727-2732

Sensitive detection of intracellular RNA of human telomerase by using graphene oxide as a carrier to deliver the assembly element of hybridization chain reaction

Z. Shi, X. Zhang, R. Cheng, B. Li and Y. Jin, Analyst, 2016, 141, 2727 DOI: 10.1039/C6AN00233A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements