title: Cascade DNA nanomachine and exponential amplification biosensing.
abstract: DNA is a versatile scaffold for the assembly of multifunctional nanostructures, and potential applications of various DNA nanodevices have been recently demonstrated for disease diagnosis and treatment. In the current study, a powerful cascade DNA nanomachine was developed that can execute the exponential amplification of p53 tumor suppressor gene. During the operation of the newly-proposed DNA nanomachine, dual-cyclical nucleic acid strand-displacement polymerization (dual-CNDP) was ingeniously introduced, where the target trigger is repeatedly used as the fuel molecule and the nicked fragments are dramatically accumulated. Moreover, each displaced nicked fragment is able to activate the another type of cyclical strand-displacement amplification, increasing exponentially the value of fluorescence intensity. Essentially, one target binding event can induce considerable number of subsequent reactions, and the nanodevice was called cascade DNA nanomachine. It can implement several functions, including recognition element, signaling probe, polymerization primer and template. Using the developed autonomous operation of DNA nanomachine, the p53 gene can be quantified in the wide concentration range from 0.05 to 150 nM with the detection limit of 50 pM. If taking into account the final volume of mixture, the detection limit is calculated as lower as 6.2 pM, achieving an desirable assay ability. More strikingly, the mutant gene can be easily distinguished from the wild-type one. The proof-of-concept demonstrations reported herein is expected to promote the development and application of DNA nanomachine, showing great potential value in basic biology and medical diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Metastasis Alert and Prevention Center and Pharmaceutical Photocatalysis of State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, China.
authors.forename: Jianguo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Cancer Metastasis Alert and Prevention Center and Pharmaceutical Photocatalysis of State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, China; State Key Laboratory for Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, PR China. Electronic address: wuzaisheng@163.com.
authors.forename: Zai-Sheng
authors.initials: ZS
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Cancer Metastasis Alert and Prevention Center and Pharmaceutical Photocatalysis of State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, China.
authors.forename: Weiyu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Cancer Metastasis Alert and Prevention Center and Pharmaceutical Photocatalysis of State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, China.
authors.forename: Huo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Cancer Metastasis Alert and Prevention Center and Pharmaceutical Photocatalysis of State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, China.
authors.forename: Hongling
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Cancer Metastasis Alert and Prevention Center and Pharmaceutical Photocatalysis of State Key Laboratory of Photocatalysis on Energy and Environment, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350002, China. Electronic address: pharmlink@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lee
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jia
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics; D016158:Genes, p53; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D049329:Nanostructures; D036103:Nanotechnology; D021141:Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence
chemical_list: D004247:DNA
keywords: Cascade DNA nanomachine; Dual-cyclical nucleic acid strand-displacement polymerization (dual-CNDP); p53 gene