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Fluorescence based turn-on strategy for determination of microRNA-155 using DNA-templated copper nanoclusters

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Abstract

The authors report on a new approach for the determination of the breast cancer biomarker microRNA-155 (miRNA-155). It is based on the measurement of the fluorescence shift of oligonucleotide-templated copper nanoclusters (DNA-CuNC). A probe DNA was designed that acts as a template for the preparation of CuNC which, under 400 nm excitation, exhibit strong fluorescence enhancement at 490 nm and a 90 nm Stokes shift after binding to target miRNA-155 and formation of a DNA-RNA heteroduplex. Under the optimal conditions, the fluorescence of the DNA-CuNC increases with increasing concentration of miRNA-155 in the range from 50 pM to 10 nM, with a 11 pM detection limit. The assay has excellent selectivity over noncomplementary RNA. The method was applied to the determination of miRNA-155 in the presence of human plasma and saliva.

Schematic of the detection strategy that relies on the fluorescence shift of DNA-CuNCs resulting from the specific binding of DNA-CuNCs with target miRNA-155. Fluorescence intensities are linearly proportional to the concentrations of target RNA from 50 pM to 10 nM.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the research Council of University of Tehran for financial support of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Science Engineering, Faculty of New Sciences & Technologies, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Yasaman-Sadat Borghei & Morteza Hosseini

  2. Medical Biomaterials Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Morteza Hosseini

  3. Center of Excellence in Electrochemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Reza Ganjali

  4. Biosensor Research Center, Endocrinology & Metabolism Molecular-Cellular Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Mohammad Reza Ganjali

Authors
  1. Yasaman-Sadat Borghei
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  2. Morteza Hosseini
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  3. Mohammad Reza Ganjali
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Correspondence to Morteza Hosseini.

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Borghei, YS., Hosseini, M. & Ganjali, M.R. Fluorescence based turn-on strategy for determination of microRNA-155 using DNA-templated copper nanoclusters. Microchim Acta 184, 2671–2677 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-017-2272-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-017-2272-6

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