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Synthesis of Near-Infrared Emitting Gold Nanoclusters for Biological Applications
Published on: March 22, 2020
A Fluorescence Light-Up Silver Nanocluster Beacon Modulated by Metal Ions and Its Application in Telomerase-Activity
Manshu Peng1, Na Na1, Jin Ouyang1
1Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Photochemistry, Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, P. R. China.
Abstract:
DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (DNA-AgNCs) have been extensively studied in recent years. The enhancement of fluorescence emission from DNA-AgNCs is still being explored. Herein, a study on the fluorescence enhancement of DNA-AgNCs induced by metal ions is reported. The enhancement is greatly dependent on the primary sequence and secondary structure of the DNA strands. Thus, a label-free AgNCs-based molecular beacon (MB) was explored for the detection of telomerase activity. Nonfluorescent MB-AgNCs in phosphate buffer emit dramatic red fluorescence when Mg2+ is introduced, whereas Mg2+ has a limited effect on the weak fluorescence of DNA-AgNCs when the hairpin structure of MB is opened. Telomerase primer can be elongated by telomerase, which results in unfolding of MB in a strand-displacement reaction. On the basis of the different brightnesses of AgNCs produced by the two DNA templates, telomerase activity can be detected. The MB-AgNCs sensing platform provides a simple and low-cost method to detect telomerase activity and shows great potential in the construction of cost-effective probes for biomolecular detection.
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