RNA-Cleaving DNAzyme-Based Amplification Strategies for Biosensing and Therapy

Since their first discovery in 1994, DNAzymes have been extensively applied in biosensing and therapy that act as recognition elements and signal generators with the outstanding properties of good stability, simple synthesis, and high sensitivity. One subset, RNA-cleaving DNAzymes, is widely employed for diverse applications, including as reporters capable of transmitting detectable signals. In this review, the recent advances of RNA-cleaving DNAzyme-based amplification strategies in scaled-up biosensing are focused, the application in diagnosis and disease treatment are also discussed. Two major types of RNA-cleaving DNAzyme-based amplification strategies are highlighted, namely direct response amplification strategies and combinational response amplification strategies. The direct response amplification strategies refer to those based on novel designed single-stranded DNAzyme, and the combinational response amplification strategies mainly include two-part assembled DNAzyme, cascade reactions, CHA/HCR/RCA, DNA walker, CRISPR-Cas12a and aptamer. Finally, the current status of DNAzymes, the challenges, and the prospects of DNAzyme-based biosensors are presented.

Automated summary

Since their discovery in 1994, DNAzymes have been widely used in biosensing and therapy due to their stability, simplicity, and sensitivity. RNA-cleaving DNAzymes are commonly used for various applications, including as signal reporters. This review focuses on the recent advances of RNA-cleaving DNAzyme-based amplification strategies in biosensing, discussing their applications in diagnosis and disease treatment. Two major types of amplification strategies, direct response and combinational response, are highlighted. Finally, the current status, challenges, and prospects of DNAzyme-based biosensors are presented.