Issue 6, 2016

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based hybridization chain reaction for in situ visualization of tumor-related mRNA

Abstract

The ability to visualize tumor-related mRNA in situ in single cells would distinguish whether they are cancer cells or normal cells, which holds great promise for cancer diagnosis at an early stage. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and hybridization chain reactions (HCRs) were combined with amplified sense tumor-related mRNA (TK1 mRNA) in situ with high sensitivity in single cells and tissue sections. Using this strategy, each copy of the target mRNA can propagate a chain reaction of hybridization events between two alternating hairpins to form a nicked duplex that contains repeated FRET units, amplifying the fluorescent signal. The detection limit of 18 pM is about three orders of magnitude lower than that of a non-HCR method (such as the binary-probe-system). Meanwhile, due to the FRET strategy, complicated washing steps are not necessary and experimental time is sharply reduced. As far as we know, this is the first report of a fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) strategy that can simultaneously fulfil signal amplification and is wash-free. We believe that this FRET-based HCR strategy has great potential as a powerful tool in basic research and clinical diagnosis.

Graphical abstract: Fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based hybridization chain reaction for in situ visualization of tumor-related mRNA

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
26 Jan 2016
Accepted
25 Feb 2016
First published
25 Feb 2016
This article is Open Access

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

Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 3829-3835

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based hybridization chain reaction for in situ visualization of tumor-related mRNA

J. Huang, H. Wang, X. Yang, K. Quan, Y. Yang, L. Ying, N. Xie, M. Ou and K. Wang, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 3829 DOI: 10.1039/C6SC00377J

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, 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 commercial 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