Issue 37, 2018

Multiplex microRNA imaging in living cells using DNA-capped-Au assembled hydrogels

Abstract

Non-invasively imaging multiplex microRNAs (miRNAs) in living cells is pivotal to understanding their physiological functions and pathological development due to the key regulatory roles of miRNAs in gene expression. However, developing smart delivery systems with large gene loading capacity, biocompatibility and responsiveness remains a significant challenge. Herein, we successfully incorporated DNA-capped Au nanoparticles (NPs) and their complementary fluorescent DNA sequences into a porous 3D hydrogel network (AuDH), in which hairpin-locked DNAzyme strands and active metal ions were loaded (AuDH/Mn+/H) for simultaneously imaging multiplex miRNAs in living cells. After transfection into cells, the specific miRNAs trigger the strand-displacement reaction and sequentially activate the DNAzyme-assisted target recycling, leading to a strong increase in the corresponding fluorescence intensity for imaging. This enables simultaneous assessment of the abundance of multiplex cancer-related miRNAs, even if at a very low expression level, in different cells through the different fluorescence intensities due to the dual signal amplification, and the change in abundance of miRNAs induced by siRNA or miRNA mimics in living cells can also be efficiently monitored. The versatile and responsive DNA hydrogel system holds great potential for miRNA biomedical applications.

Graphical abstract: Multiplex microRNA imaging in living cells using DNA-capped-Au assembled hydrogels

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
28 Jun 2018
Accepted
06 Aug 2018
First published
07 Aug 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 7419-7425

Multiplex microRNA imaging in living cells using DNA-capped-Au assembled hydrogels

X. Meng, K. Zhang, W. Dai, Y. Cao, F. Yang, H. Dong and X. Zhang, Chem. Sci., 2018, 9, 7419 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC02858C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements