Tension promoted circular probe for highly selective microRNA detection and imaging

The crucial role of miRNA in cell regulation and its connection with diverse human cancers as a tumor suppressor or an oncogenic fragment poses great demand for an accurate and rapid approach for highly efficient miRNA detection and imaging in live cells. However, the ability to selectively detect and image miRNA remains a significant challenge in biomedical fields. Herein, a sealed circular probe (CP) has been prepared with copper free click ligation. The big tension force of the ring structure greatly increases the sequence recognition specificity. Toehold initiated strand displacement of CP further amplify the selectivity for miRNA determination. Impressively, the different site of single base mismatch could even be discriminated. More importantly, CP was successfully applied for imaging endogenous miRNA expression in live cells. We believe that this new probe would find wide application in profiling of endogenous miRNA and be potential candidate method for helping us diagnosing miRNA related diseases.