A target-triggered strand displacement reaction cycle: the design and application in adenosine triphosphate sensing

A strand displacement reaction (SDR) system that runs solely on oligonucleotides has been developed for the amplification detection of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). It involves a target-induced SDR and an entropy-driven catalytic cycle of two SDRs with five oligonucleotides, denoted as substrate, fuel, catalyst, C-1, and C-2. Catalyst, released from the ATP aptamer-catalyst duplex by ATP molecule, catalyzes the SDRs to finally form the substrate-fuel duplex. All of the intermediates in the catalytic SDR processes have been identified by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) analysis. The introduction of ATP into the SDR system will induce the ATP aptamer to form G-quadruplex conformation so as to release catalyst and trigger the SDR cycle. When the substrate and C-2 oligonucleotides were labeled with a carboxyfluorescein (FAM) fluorophore and a 4-([4-(dimethylamino)phenyl]azo)benzoic acid (DABCYL) quencher, this SDR catalytic system exhibited a "turn-on" response for ATP. The condition for detecting ATP, such as Mg²⁺ concentration, has been optimized to afford a detection limit of 20 nM. This work provides an enzyme-free biosensing strategy and has potential application in aptamer-based biosensing.