Intraparticle and Interparticle Transferable DNA Walker Supported by DNA Micelles for Rapid Detection of MicroRNA

Abstract

Synthetic DNA walkers are artificially designed DNA self-assemblies with the capability of performing quasimechanical movement at the micro/nanoscale and have shown extensive promise in biosensing, intracellular imaging, and drug delivery. However, DNA walkers are usually constructed by covalently or coordinately binding DNA strands specifically to hard surfaces, thereby greatly limiting their movement efficiency. Herein, we report an intraparticle and interparticle transferable DNA walker (dynamic micelle-supported DNA walker, DMwalker) constructed by immobilizing walking tracks and walking arms onto the corona of DNA micelles according to the principle of Watson−Crick base pairing. The DNAzyme-powered walking arm can drive the intraparticle and interparticle movements of the DM-walker due to the fact that the dynamic structure of the DNA micelle helps overcome the spatial barrier between the arms and tracks in the system, resulting in high walking efficiency. Moreover, the whole DM-walker can be constructed by self-assembly, getting rid of the tedious process and low efficiency of fixing DNA strands on hard surfaces. Taking miRNA-10b as a model target, the DM-walker demonstrates high walking efficiency (reaction duration of 20 min) and high sensitivity (LOD of 87 pM). The proposed DM-walker provides an avenue to develop novel DNA walkers on dynamic interfaces and holds great potential in clinical diagnosis.

Highly Efficient Electrochemiluminescence Based on Luminol/MoS2 Quantum Dots@Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework-8 as an Emitter for Ultrasensitive Detection of MicroRNA

“…At present, strategies for efficient signal amplification of microRNA based on a DNA walker machine have been gradually focused due to its eminent cycling activity and controllability. − Especially, in order to avoid the restriction of using enzymes which commonly required a specific ion concentration and temperature, researchers developed nucleic acid amplification methods that utilized endogenous adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as an optional driving force to trace microRNA. − Even so, these strategies activated these DNA walkers by sacrificing target microRNA in equal proportion, which resulted in a low converting efficiency, thus limiting the effective signal amplification. In this work, on the basis of ATP as a driving fuel, an arched DNA structure integrating the ATP aptamer and the microRNA-21 (miRNA-21)-associated sequence was reasonably designed to fabricate the coordinated DNA molecular machine, realizing the recycling of target miRNA-21 to enhance the signal amplification efficiency.…”

Dynamic 3D DNA Rolling Walkers via Directional Movement on a Lipid Bilayer Supported by Au@Fe3O4 Nanoparticles for Sensitive Detection of MiRNA-16

“…Due to the excellent molecular recognition specificity and structural controllability, DNA nanomachines such as DNA walkers, tweezers, gears, and robots have been applied in molecular computing, biosensing, and clinical diagnosis. − Among these DNA nanomachines, DNA walkers could shift progressively along the predetermined tracks under a single trigger event, thus drawing extensive attention from researchers. For example, Chen et al.…”

Highly Efficient Quadruped DNA Walker Guided by Ordered DNA Tracks for Rapid and Ultrasensitive Electrochemical Detection of miRNA-21

“…In the past few decades, researchers have designed many highly complicated and powerful DNA molecular machines that could implement specific functions on a nanoscale, for example, DNA robots, − DNA tweezers, − DNA walkers, − etc. Among the various kinds of molecular machines, the DNA walker, a novel dynamic nanomachine, − which could walk along designed DNA tracks to guarantee transport of cargoes with the help of driving forces (the driving forces including strand displacement reaction (SDR), protein enzyme/DNAzyme reaction, and environmental stimuli), has attracted more and more eyes to explore in sensing systems, , bioimaging, − molecular computing, cargo delivery, programmed synthesis, logic gates devices, and so on.…”