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DNAzyme-functionalized porous carbon nanospheres serve as a fluorescent nanoprobe for imaging detection of microRNA-21 and zinc ion in living cells

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Abstract

The present study shows that a dual-signal nanoprobe consisting of DNAzyme-functionalized porous carbon nanospheres (PCNs) responds to microRNA-21 and zinc ion (Zn2+). The fluorescent probe undergoes an increase in the fluorescence intensity of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) (with excitation/emission wavelengths at 488/517 nm) and the fluorescence intensity of cyanine-5 (Cy5) (with excitation/emission wavelengths at 633/670 nm) in the presence of microRNA-21 and Zn2+. The recognition between microRNA-21 and its complementary strand in the PCNs induces the separation of Zn2+-specific DNAzyme from PCNs, thus resulting in the increase of green fluorescence, and the exogenous Zn2+ triggers the rupture of cleavage strand of DNAzyme and recovery of red fluorescence. This nanoprobe allows us to acquire in vitro the determination of microRNA-21 in the range of 2–300 nM with a detection limit of 0.57 nM and the determination of Zn2+ in the range 2–100 nM with a detection limit of 0.43 nM, and in situ simultaneous imaging in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Therefore, this strategy permits to obtain the expression levels of different biomarkers in living cells, providing a useful tool for diagnosis of cancers and understanding their biological process.

Schematic representation of the DNAzyme-functionalized porous carbon nanospheres for the imaging analysis of microRNA-21 and Zn2+ in living cells.

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Acknowledgments

The authors greatly acknowledge support from the Project Fund for Shangdong Key R&D Program (2017GGX20121). In addition, Xiaoting Ji particularly wishes to thank Zhan Xiao, whose sincere personality has given her powerful spiritual impetus to overcome various difficulties in her doctoral research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Optic-electric Sensing and Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, MOE, Shandong Key Laboratory of Biochemical Analysis, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science in Universities of Shandong, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266042, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoting Ji, Zhenbo Wang, Shuyan Niu & Caifeng Ding

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  1. Xiaoting Ji
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Correspondence to Shuyan Niu or Caifeng Ding.

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Ji, X., Wang, Z., Niu, S. et al. DNAzyme-functionalized porous carbon nanospheres serve as a fluorescent nanoprobe for imaging detection of microRNA-21 and zinc ion in living cells. Microchim Acta 187, 249 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-020-04226-6

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