Issue 11, 2015

Lab on a single microbead: an ultrasensitive detection strategy enabling microRNA analysis at the single-molecule level

Abstract

Detection of a single nucleic acid molecule is of great significance for both fundamental biochemistry studies and clinical diagnostics. By using microRNA (miRNA) as a model target, herein, we have developed a single-microbead-based sensing (SMBS) platform, which simply enables the detection of miRNA at the single-molecule level. In this strategy, an isothermal exponential amplification reaction (EXPAR) is rationally designed towards specific miRNAs and all products of the EXPAR are integrated onto a single microbead for signal amplification and fluorescence enrichment. This pushes the detection of miRNAs down to 1 aM in a 5 μL sample, corresponding to 3 copies of the miRNA molecule. This new strategy also affords high selectivity and it is capable of distinguishing among homologous miRNA family members even with a single-base difference. Due to its ultrahigh sensitivity and selectivity, the proposed SMBS platform has been successfully applied to the detection of miRNA extracted from a single cell.

Graphical abstract: Lab on a single microbead: an ultrasensitive detection strategy enabling microRNA analysis at the single-molecule level

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
21 Jul 2015
Accepted
13 Aug 2015
First published
20 Aug 2015
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2015,6, 6213-6218

Lab on a single microbead: an ultrasensitive detection strategy enabling microRNA analysis at the single-molecule level

X. Zhang, C. Liu, L. Sun, X. Duan and Z. Li, Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 6213 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02641E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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