A Novel Label-Free microRNA-155 Detection on the Basis of Fluorescent Silver Nanoclusters

In this paper, a new approach for microRNA-155 (miRNA-155) detection was described based on the fluorescence quenching of oligonucleotide-templated silver nanoclusters (DNA-AgNCs). The specific DNA scaffold with two different nucleotides fragments were used: one was enriched with a cytosine sequence fragment (C12) that could result in DNA-AgNCs with a high quantum yield via a chemical reduction method, and the other was the probe fragment (5- CUGUUAAUGCUAAUCGUG-3) which could selectively bind to the miRNA-155. Thus, the as-prepared AgNCs could exhibit quenched fluorescence when binding to the target miRNA-155. The fluorescence ratio of the DNA-AgNCs was quenched in a linearly proportional manner to the concentration of the target in the range of 0.2 nM to 30 nM with a detection limit of 0.1 nM.