Volume 61, Issue 45 e202206529
Research Article

On-Site Non-enzymatic Orthogonal Activation of a Catalytic DNA Circuit for Self-Reinforced In Vivo MicroRNA Imaging

Shizhen He

Shizhen He

College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P. R. China

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Shanshan Yu

Shanshan Yu

College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P. R. China

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Ruomeng Li

Ruomeng Li

College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P. R. China

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Yingying Chen

Yingying Chen

College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P. R. China

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Qing Wang

Qing Wang

College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P. R. China

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Yuqiu He

Yuqiu He

College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P. R. China

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Prof. Xiaoqing Liu

Prof. Xiaoqing Liu

College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P. R. China

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Prof. Fuan Wang

Corresponding Author

Prof. Fuan Wang

College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, P. R. China

Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, P. R. China

Research Centre for Infectious Diseases and Cancer, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Wuhan, P. R. China

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Dedicated to Professor Itamar Willner on the occasion of his 75th birthday
First published: 01 July 2022
Citations: 66

Graphical Abstract

A non-enzymatically and orthogonally controlled catalytic DNA (CCD) circuit was prepared for on-site and efficient in vivo microRNA (miRNA) imaging without off-site signal leakage. The CCD circuit integrates the cell-specific endogenous stimulation of the auxiliary catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) with the orthogonal activation of the main entropy-driven DNA reaction (EDR) for sensitive target detection.

Abstract

The wide extracellular-intracellular distribution of microRNA requires the on-site, robust and efficient activation of catalytic DNA circuits inside live cells. Herein, we develop an efficient non-enzymatic circuitry activation strategy to realize the orthogonally controlled catalytic DNA (CCD) circuit for achieving high-fidelity in vivo microRNA imaging through multiply guaranteed molecular recognition and progressively accelerated signal amplification. For predictable on-site activation and useful catalytic efficiency, the dominating circuitry fuel strand was initially split into inactive fuel subunits that were grafted into an auxiliary catalytic circuit. There, the in-cell-specific mRNA triggered the orthogonal amplification of the active fuel strands for sensitive target detection through the chief entropy-driven catalytic DNA circuit. We believe that the on-site orthogonal circuitry activation method can contribute to clinical diagnosis and prognosis.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in the Supporting Information of this article.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.