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Updated: Mar 28, 2026

Real-time Imaging of Single Engineered RNA Transcripts in Living Cells Using Ratiometric Bimolecular Beacons
Published on: August 6, 2014
A DNA tetrahedron-based molecular beacon for tumor-related mRNA detection in living cells
Nuli Xie1, Jin Huang1, Xiaohai Yang1
1State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory for Bio-Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering of Hunan Province, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China. jinhuang@hnu.edu.cn kmwang@hnu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Due to its low cytotoxicity, high resistance to enzymatic degradation, and cellular permeability, a DNA tetrahedron-based molecular beacon (DTMB) is designed for tumor-related TK1 mRNA detection in living cells, where the target sequence can induce the tetrahedron from contraction to extension, resulting in fluorescence restoration.

