Design of Molecular Beacons as Signaling Probes for Adenosine Triphosphate Detection in Cancer Cells Based on Chemiluminescence Resonance Energy Transfer

In the present study, binary and triplex DNA molecular beacons, as signaling probes based on a luminol-H(2)O(2)-horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-fluorescein chemiluminescence resonance energy transfer (CRET) system and structure-switching aptamers for highly sensitive detection of small molecules, are developed using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) as a model analyte to demonstrate the generality of the strategy. This CRET process occurs from donor luminol to acceptor fluorescein, which is oxidized by H(2)O(2) and catalyzed by HRP. DNA aptamer for ATP is first attached on the surface of magnetic nanoparicles (MNPs). The cDNA linker has an extension that hybridizes with two other DNAs (LumAuNP-DNA and F-DNA) or three other DNAs (HRP-DNA, LumAuNP-DNA, and F-DNA) to fabricate CRET-BMBP-MNP or CRET-TMBP-MNP conjugates that provide the CRET signals. Thus, in the absence of ATP, when the MNPs are removed from the solution, they also take with them the linker DNA and the CRET signal probes, and no CRET signal can be detected. However, when ATP is introduced, a competition for the ATP aptamer between ATP and the cDNA linker occurs. As a result, CRET-BMBP and CRET-TMBP are forced to dissociate from the MNP surface based on the structure switching of the aptamer. The CRET signals are proportional to the concentration of ATP. In order to accelerate the rate of the aptamer structure-switching process, an invader DNA is introduced into the proposed strategy. The present CRET system provides a low detection limit of 1.1 x 10(-7) and 3.2 x 10(-7) M for ATP detection by BMBP and TMBP, respectively, which also exhibits a good selectivity for ATP detection. Sample assays of ATP in K562 leukemia cells and 4T1 breast cancer cells confirm the reliability and practicality of the protocol, which reveal a good prospect of this platform for biological sample analysis.