MnO₂ nanosheets as a carrier and accelerator for improved live-cell biosensing application of CRISPR/Cas12a

Besides gene-editing, the CRISPR/Cas12a system has also been widely used in in vitro biosensing, but its applications in live-cell biosensing are rare. One reason is lacking appropriate carriers to synchronously deliver all components of the CRISPR/Cas12a system into living cells. Herein, we demonstrate that MnO₂ nanosheets are an excellent carrier of CRISPR/Cas12a due to the two important roles played by them. Through a simple mixing operation, all components of the CRISPR/Cas12a system can be loaded on MnO₂ nanosheets and thus synchronously delivered into cells. Intracellular glutathione (GSH)-induced decomposition of MnO₂ nanosheets not only results in the rapid release of the CRISPR/Cas12a system in cells but also provides Mn²⁺ as an accelerator to promote CRISPR/Cas12a-based biosensing of intracellular targets. Due to the merits of highly efficient delivery, rapid intracellular release, and the accelerated signal output reaction, MnO₂ nanosheets work better than commercial liposome carriers in live-cell biosensing analysis of survivin messenger RNA (mRNA), producing much brighter fluorescence images in a shorter time. The use of MnO₂ nanosheets might provide a good carrier for different CRISPR/Cas systems and achieve the rapid and sensitive live-cell biosensing analysis of different intracellular targets, thus paving a promising way to promote the applications of CRISPR/Cas systems in living cells.