Utilizing Gold Nanoparticle Probes to Visually Detect DNA Methylation.
The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect endows gold nanoparticles (GNPs) with the ability to visualize biomolecules. In the present study, we designed and constructed a GNP probe to allow the semi-quantitative analysis of methylated tumor suppressor genes in cultured cells. To construct the probe, the GNP surfaces were coated with single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) by forming Au-S bonds. The ssDNA contains a thiolated 5'-end, a regulatory domain of 12 adenine nucleotides, and a functional domain with absolute pairing with methylated p16 sequence (Met-p16). The probe, paired with Met-p16, clearly changed the color of aggregating GNPs probe in 5 mol/L NaCl solution. Utilizing the probe, p16 gene methylation in HCT116 cells was semi-quantified. Further, the methylation of E-cadherin, p15, and p16 gene in Caco2, HepG2, and HCT116 cell lines were detected by the corresponding probes, constructed with three domains. This simple and cost-effective method was useful for the diagnosis of DNA methylation-related diseases.
CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Beijing, 100049, China.|School of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China.
Kui
K
Chen
CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Beijing, 100049, China.
Mingyi
M
Zhang
CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Beijing, 100049, China.
Ya-Nan
YN
Chang
CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Beijing, 100049, China.
Lin
L
Xia
CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Beijing, 100049, China.
Weihong
W
Gu
CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Beijing, 100049, China.
Yanxia
Y
Qin
CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Beijing, 100049, China.
Juan
J
Li
School of Life Sciences, Capital Normal University, Beijing, 100048, China. suxia219@163.com.
Suxia
S
Cui
CAS Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), Beijing, 100049, China. xinggm@ihep.ac.cn.
Gengmei
G
Xing
DNA methylation; Gold nanoparticles probe; Semi-quantitative assay; Surface plasmon resonance; Visual detection