Label-Free Detection of Telomerase Activity in Urine Using Telomerase-Responsive Porous Anodic Alumina Nanochannels

Telomerase is closely related to cancers, which makes it one of the most widely known tumor marker. Recently, many methods have been reported for telomerase activity measurement in which complex label procedures were commonly used. In this paper, a label-free method for detection of telomerase activity in urine based on steric hindrance changes induced by confinement geometry in the porous anodic alumina (PAA) nanochannels was proposed. Telomerase substrate (TS) primer was first assembled on the inside wall of PAA nanochannels by 'Schiff reaction under mild Conditions. Then, under the action of telomerase, TS primer was amplified and extended to repeating Gtrich sequences (TTAGGG)x, which formed multiplex Gquadruplex in the presence of potassium ions (K+). This configurational 'change led to the increment of steric hindrance in the nanochannels, resulting in the decrement of anodic current of potassium ferricyanide (K-3[Fe(CN)(6)]). Compared with previously= reported methods based on PAA nanochannels (usually one G-quadniplek formed), multiplex repeating G-quadruplex formed on one TS primer in this work. As a result, large current drop (similar to 3.6 mu A, 36%) was obtained, Which gave fadlity to improve the detection sensitivity. The decreased ratio of anodic current has a linear correlation with the logarithm of HeLa cell number in the range of 10-5000 cells, with the detection limit of seven cells. The method is simple, reliable, and has, been successfully applied in the detection of telomerase in urine with good accuracy, selectivity and reproducibility. In addition, the method is nondestructive test compared to blood analysis and pathology tests, which is significant for cancer discovery, development, and prognosis.