Nanoflares as probes for cancer diagnostics

Patients whose cancer is detected early are much more likely to have a positive prognosis and outcome. Nanoflares hold promise as a practical diagnostic platform for the early detection of cancer markers in living cells. These probes are based on spherical nucleic acid (SNAs) and are typically composed of gold nanoparticle cores and densely packed and highly oriented oligonucleotide shells; these sequences are complementary to specific mRNA targets and are hybridized to fluorophore-labeled reporter strands. Nanoflares take advantage of the highly efficient fluorescence quenching properties of gold, the rapid cellular uptake of SNAs that occurs without the use of transfection agents, and the enzymatic stability of such constructs to report a highly sensitive and specific signal in the presence of intracellular target mRNA. In this chapter, we will focus on the synthesis, characterization, and diagnostic applications of nanoflares as they relate to cancer markers.