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

Herein, a long period liner DNA tandem (Lr-DNT) was intelligently designed as DNA track for quadruped DNA walker (q-walker) to run in an orderly and efficient manner, which could be applied to construct an electrochemical biosensor for rapid and ultrasensitive detection of microRNA-21 (miRNA-21). Impressively, benefiting from the orderliness and equidistance of Lr-DNT, the q-walker could be endowed with a high controllability, directionality as well as a quite short reaction time down to 20 min compared with those of traditional DNA walkers walked on the stochastic tracks. Once the target miRNA-21 interacted with the locked q-walker, the q-walker could be activated to expeditiously cleave Lr-DNT for releasing amounts of signal probes ferrocene (Fc) with the assistance of the Nt.BbvCI enzyme. This way, the developed q-walker could not only readily overcome the problem of low reaction efficiency but also address the drawback of time consumption in a previous strategy. As a proof of concept, the prepared biosensor could accomplish sensitive detection of target miRNA-21 with a detection limit down to 31 aM. As a result, this tactic gave impetus to design high-performance sensing platform with ultimate application in clinical sample analysis and nucleic acid based cancer diagnostics.

Automated summary

A smart-designed DNA track, known as long period linear DNA tandem (Lr-DNT), was utilized for orderly and efficient operation of a quadruped DNA walker in constructing an electrochemical biosensor for rapid and ultrasensitive microRNA-21 detection. This strategy not only overcomes the low reaction efficiency and time consumption issues, but also opens up new possibilities for clinical sample analysis and cancer diagnostics.