Sensitive detection of alkaline phosphatase based on terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase and endonuclease Ⅳ-assisted exponential signal amplification

Alkaline phosphatase(ALP)is widely expressed in human tissues.ALP plays an important role in the dephosphorylation of proteins and nucleic acids.Therefore,quantitative analysis of ALP plays a vital role in disease diagnosis and the development of biological detection methods.Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase(TdT)catalyzes continuous polymerization of deoxynucleotide triphosphates at the 30-OH end of single-stranded DNA in the absence of a template.In this study,we developed a highly sensitive and selective method based on TdT and endonuclease Ⅳ(Endo Ⅳ)to quantify ALP activity.After ALP hydrolyzes the 30-PO_(4) end of the substrate and generates 30-OH,TdT can effectively elongate the 30-OH end with deoxynucleotide adenine triphosphate(dATP)and produce a poly A tail,which can be detected by the poly T probes.Endo Ⅳ digests the AP site in poly T probes to generate a fluorescent signal and a new 30-OH end,leading to the generation of exponential fluorescence signal amplification.The substrate for TdT elongation was optimized,and a limit of detection of 4.3×10^(-3) U/L was achieved for ALP by the optimized substrate structure.This method can also detect ALP in the cell lysate of a single cell.This work has potential applications in disease diagnosis and biomedical detection.

Toeless and reversible DNA strand displacement based on Hoogsteen-bond triplex

Strand displacement reaction is a crucial component in the assembly of diverse DNA-based nanodevices,with the toehold-mediated strand displacement reaction representing the prevailing strategy.However,the single-stranded Watson-Crick sticky region that serves as the trigger for strand displacement can also cause leakage reactions by introducing crosstalk in complex DNA circuits.Here,we proposed the toeless and reversible DNA strand displacement reaction based on the Hoogsteen-bond triplex,which is compatible with most of the existing DNA circuits.We demonstrated that our proposed reaction can occur at pH 5 and can be reversed at pH 9.We also observed an approximately linear relationship between the degree of reaction and pH within the range of pH 5-6,providing the potential for precise regulation of the reaction.Meanwhile,by altering the sequence orientation,we have demonstrated that our proposed reaction can be initiated or regulated through the same toeless mechanism without the requirement for protonation in low pH conditions.Based on the proposed reaction principle,we further constructed a variety of DNA nanodevices,including two types of DNA logic gates that rely on pH 5/pH 9 changes for initiating and reversing:the AND gate and the OR gate.We also successfully constructed a DNA Walker based on our proposed reaction modes,which can move along a given track after the introduction of a programmable DNA sequence and complete a cycle after 4 steps.Our findings suggest that this innovative approach will have broad utility in the development of DNA circuits,molecular sensors,and other complex biological systems.

Triplex-structure based DNA circuits with ultra-low leakage and high signal-to-noise ratio

DNA circuits are powerful tools in various applications such as logical computation,molecular diagnosis and synthetic biology.Leakage is a major problem in constructing complex DNA circuits.It directly affects the output signal and harms the circuit’s performance significantly.In the traditional DNA circuits,the gate complex is a duplex structure.There are insufficient energy barriers to prevent spontaneous detachment of strands,resulting in a leak prone.Herein,we have developed triplex-structure based DNA circuit with ultra-low leakage and high signal-to-noise ratio(SNR).The triplex structure improves the stability in the absence of input.At the same time,the driving force of the strand displacement cascades reduces the influence of the triplex structure on the desired reaction.The SNR of the DNA circuit was increased to 695,while the desired reaction rate remained 90%of the conventional translator circuit.The triplex-structure mediated leakage prevention strategy was further tested at different temperatures and in DNA translator and seesaw circuits.We also constructed modular basic logic gates with a high efficiency and low leakage.On this basis,we further constructed triplex-structure based tertiary DNA logic circuits,and the SNR reached 295,which,to the best of our knowledge,was among the highest of the field.We believe that our scheme provides a novel,valid,and general tool for reducing leakages,and we anticipate that it will be widely adopted in DNA nanotechnology.

Regulable toehold lock for the effective control of strand displacement reaction sequence and circuit leakage

Strand displacement reaction enables the construction of enzyme-free DNA reaction networks,thus has been widely applied to DNA circuit and nanotechnology.It has the characteristics of high efficiency,universality and regulatability.However,the existing regulation tools cannot enable effective control of the reaction sequence,which undoubtedly limits the construction of complex nucleic acid circuits.Herein,we developed a regulation tool,toehold lock,and achieved strict control of reaction sequence without loss of the main reaction signal output.Furthermore,we applied the tool to scenarios such as seesaw circuits,AND/OR logic gates,and entropy-driven circuits,and respectively demonstrated its significant superiority compared to the original method.We believe that the proposed toehold lock has greatly optimized the efficiency of DNA strand displacement-based networks,and we anticipate that the tool will be widely used in multiple fields.

Locked nucleic acids based DNA circuits with ultra-low leakage

DNA circuits based on toehold-mediated DNA strand displacement reaction are powerful tools owing to their programmability and predictability.However,performance and practical application of the circuits are greatly restricted by leakage,which refers to the fact that there is no input(invading strand)in the circuit,and the output signal is still generated.Herein,we constructed locked nucleic acids-based DNA circuits with ultra-low leakage.High binding affinity of LNA(locked nucleic acid)-DNA/LNA suppressed the leakage by inhibiting the breathing effect.Based on the strategy,we have built various low-leakage DNA circuits,including translator circuit,catalytic hairpin assembly(CHA)circuit,entropy-driven circuit(EDC),and seesaw circuit.More importantly,our strategy would not affect the desired main reactions:The output signal remained above 85%for all tested circuits,and the signalto-noise ratios were elevated to 148.8-fold at the most.We believe our strategy will greatly promote the development and application of DNA circuits-based DNA nanotechnology.

A new method for evaluating the quality of single sperm by detecting reactive oxygen species

Sperm damage caused by reactive oxygen species(ROS) is one of the main causes of male infertility.Therefore, the level of ROS in sperm is an important indicator for the diagnosis and prognosis of male infertility. Herein, we constructed a single sperm ROS detection method(SSRDM) with an optical microprobe fabricated via focused ion beam process. The micro-probe is used to separately excite fluorescence in the sperm and the area around the sperm after ROS staining, and the difference in fluorescence values can reflect the level of ROS in the sperm. We collected 102 semen samples and 72 of them were divided into asthenozoospermia and non-asthenozoospermia groups. SSRDM and flow cytometry were used to detect the ROS levels of the two groups. The results of SSRDM showed that the ROS levels of asthenozoospermia group were higher than that of non-asthenozoospermia group(P = 0.002), while the results of flow cytometry indicated no difference(P = 0.152). In terms of ROS levels, compared with flow cytometry, SSRDM has a stronger ability to distinguish between those two groups, providing a reliable basis for assessment of sperm quality. Another 30 semen samples were used to investigate temperature and temporal variability of SSRDM to ensure the stability and accuracy of this method. Overall, we have developed a method that can quantitatively detect fluorescent substances in sperm at the single-cell level supplying evidence for diagnosis and prognosis of male infertility.

Short-DNA Specific Blocker PCR for Efficient and Simple Enrichment of Cell Free Fetal DNAs with Short Lengths

As an inn ate characteristic,DNA length has attracted more and more atte ntion.The length of some import ant biomarkers such as ctDNA(Circulating tumor DNA)and cffDNA(Cell free fetal DNA)is shorter than that of cell-free DNA.Researchers have utilized the differe nee in length to in crease the abunda nee of ctDNA or cffDNA in total cell-free DNA to overcome the difficulties in detecti on due to their low abundance.

A cost-effective detection of low-abundance mutation with DNA three-way junction structure and lambda exonuclease

We presented a low-abundance mutation detection method with lambda exonuclease and DNA threeway junction structure.The assistant strand in the DNA three-way junction structure could regulate the reaction system from the kinetics and thermodyna mics aspects.The optimization of the assista nt strand helps to improve the selectivity of the mutant-type DNA to the wild-type DNA about 35 times.Moreover,the cost of the optimization process could be saved by about 90%.The method was applied to the detection of a human ovarian cancer-related gene mutation BRCA1(rs1799949,c.2082 C>T).The limit of detection to the mutation abundance in the DNA three-way junction structure system(0.2%) was one order lower compared with that in the double-stranded DNA structure system(2%).The mutation abundance in different standard samples was quantitively measured,and the results were consistent with the initial abundance in the standard samples.

Probing and modulating the interactions of the DNAzyme with DNA-functionalized nanoparticles

DNA-functionalized gold nanoparticles are one of the most versatile bionanomaterials for biomedical and clinical diagnosis. Herein, we discovered that the performance of DNAzyme cleaving the substrate is highly related to its length. This intriguing phenomenon only appears at the interfaces of DNAfunctionalized gold nanoparticles. We systematically investigated the causes of this phenomenon. We conjectured that the DNAzyme with extended nucleotides that do not match its substrate strand is vulnerable to non-specific adsorption, electrostatic repulsion, and steric hindrance. Based on our improved understanding of this phenomenon, we have successfully developed a highly sensitive and specific amplifiable biosensor to detect human apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1.

Thermodynamics-guided two-way interlocking DNA cascade system for universal multiplexed mutation detection

Detection of point mutations in driver genes is of great significance for the early diagnosis,treatment,and prognostic evaluation of cancer.However,current detection methods do not offer versatility,specificity,and rapid performance simultaneously.Thus,multiple mutation detection processes are necessary,which results in long processing times and high costs.In this study,we developed a thermodynamics-guided two-way interlocking DNA cascade system for universal multiplexed mutation detection(TTI-CS).This strategy is based on the DNA probe,which changes the thermodynamic balance of the DNA cascade by the designed bubble structure,thereby achieving a good distinction between mutant and wild-type DNA.The designed method greatly shortens the detection time through two-way intrusion.In addition,this method only changes two inexpensive trigger and bridge sequences,which replace the specific and expensive nucleic acid probes used in analyses based on traditional DNA probe methods,thereby enabling multiple detections.We performed the detection of synthetic single-stranded DNA for the five mutation points and successfully detected in endometrial cancer specimens.The detection limit of this method is0.1%,which better meets the needs of clinical low-abundance multiple mutation detection.Overall,TTI-CS is currently one of the best methods for detecting multiple mutation detections.

Shared-probe system:An accurate,low-cost and general enzyme-assisted DNA probe system for detection of genetic mutation

Enzyme assisted DNA probes are powerful tools in molecular diagnostics for their simplicity,rapidity,and low detection limit.However,cost of probes,difficulty in optimization and disturbance of secondary structure hindered the wider application of enzyme assisted DNA probes.To solve the problems,we designed a new system named shared-probe system.By introducing two unlabeled single stranded DNA named Sh1 and Sh2 as the bridge between probe and the substrate,the same sequence of dually labeled probe with stable performance was shared for different mutations,thus sparing the expense and time cost on designing,synthesizing and optimizing corresponding probes.Besides,the hybridization between Sh1 and the substrate could overcome secondary structures,which guaranteed the detection of different substrates.The performance and generality of the design were tested by low abundance detection in synthetic single DNA samples and the limit of detection was 0.05%for PTENR130 Q,EGFR-L858 R and 0.02%for BRCA1-NM007294.3.In genomic DNA samples,the limit of detection of 0.1%can be achieved for EGFR-L858 R,demonstrating the potential of clinical application in our design.

DNA origami-based nano-hunter enriches low-abundance point mutations by targeting wild-type gene segments

Point mutations can be used as biomarkers to perform diagnosis for diseases. In this study, a nanorobot for low-abundance point mutation enrichment was constructed using DNA origami. The novel design achieved limits of detection of 0.1% and 1% for synthesized DNA samples and clinical gene samples, respectively. Resettability was a key property of this method, which also involved a simpler process, lower cost and shorter detection duration than traditional enrichment methods. This novel DNA nanorobot may enable the detection of tumor markers, potentially facilitating early cancer diagnosis.

Sensitive DNA Mutation Detection at Physiological Temperature with Endonuclease IV by Inhibiting Its Side Activity

Endonuclease IV(Endo IV)has the side activity to cleave the apurinic/apyrimidinic site in the single-stranded DNA probe(AP-ssDNA),which adversely affects its performance in single-nucleotide variation(SNV)detection.In this work,we developed a simple strategy to inhibit Endo IV's side activity by introducing an assistant strand into the detection system.The assistant strand effectively inhibited the side-activity of Endo IV by conf ini ng the freedom of AP-ssDNA through rigid double-stranded DNA formati on,and the inhibition efficiency could reach 98%.About 20 times enhancement of the discrimination factor(DF)was obtained compared to the detection system without the assistant strand.After optimization,a mean DF value was calculated to be 738 for different mutation types,and the sample with 0.005%allele frequency was discriminated from the wild-type target.Another advantage of using an assists nt stra nd was that the SNV detection could be executed at physiological temperature without precise temperature optimization as in other Endo IV-based SNV detection system.Besides,EGFR T790M mutant in the synthesized and clinical samples was detected by our strategy.The results showed satisfactory sensitivity and accuracy by comparison with Sanger sequencing.Thus,this strategy has the potential to be applied in the field of precision medicine.