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Updated: Jan 22, 2026

Production and Detection of Reactive Oxygen Species ROS in Cancers
Published on: November 21, 2011
Orthogonal Activation of RNA-Cleaving DNAzymes in Live Cells by Reactive Oxygen Species
Lu Xiao1, Chunmei Gu1, Yu Xiang1
1Department of Chemistry, Beijing Key Laboratory for Microanalytical Methods and Instrumentation, Key Laboratory of Bioorganic Phosphorus, Chemistry and Chemical Biology (Ministry of Education), Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
Abstract:
RNA-cleaving DNAzymes are useful tools for intracellular metal-ion sensing and gene regulation. Incorporating stimuli-responsive modifications into these DNAzymes enables their activities to be spatiotemporally and chemically controlled for more precise applications. Despite the successful development of many caged DNAzymes for light-induced activation, DNAzymes that can be intracellularly activated by chemical inputs of biological importance, such as reactive oxygen species (ROS), are still scarce. ROS like hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) and hypochlorite (HClO) are critical mediators of oxidative stress-related cell signaling and dysregulation including activation of immune system as well as progression of diseases and aging. Herein, we report ROS-activable DNAzymes by introducing phenylboronate and phosphorothioate modifications to the Zn2+ -dependent 8-17 DNAzyme. These ROS-activable DNAzymes were orthogonally activated by H2 O2 and HClO inside live human and mouse cells.
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