title: Coupling a DNA-Based Machine with Glucometer Readouts for Amplified Detection of Telomerase Activity in Cancer Cells.
abstract: The strong correlation between cancer and telomerase activity has inspired the development of new strategies to evaluate telomerase activity. Here, a personal glucose meter (PGM) system that uses DNA-based machine amplification to detect telomerase in cancer cells is reported. In this assay, telomerase elongation products are amplified in the form of another type of product by a DNA-based machine. This process can only be activated by the hybridization of the extended telomerase substrate (TS) probe and the complementary primer in the presence of telomerase. The obtained products are then transformed to glucose-related signals via a three-component assay, which enables the simple use of a PGM to indirectly quantify the telomerase activity. The proposed method realizes sensitive telomerase activity detection down to 20 HeLa cells with a significantly enhanced dynamic range. Additionally, short telomerase elongation products, such as telomerase substrate probes with two repetitive sequences, that cannot be detected using the most widely used telomeric repeat amplification protocol assay were detected.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Wenjing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.|School of Pharmacy, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750004, China.
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou 221006, China.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rui
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.|School of Chemistry and Life Science, Nanjing University Jinling College, Nanjing 210089, China.
authors.forename: Jian-Rong
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science and Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China.
authors.forename: Jun-Jie
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D000072283:A549 Cells; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D019098:Telomerase / Q000378:metabolism*; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D019098:Telomerase