MicroRNA-mediated signal amplification coupled with GNP/dendrimers on a mass-sensitive biosensor and its applications in intracellular microRNA quantification

Here, a mass-sensitive microRNA sensing surface is developed by utilizing a probe DNA/gold nanoparticles (GNP)/dendrimer composite coupling with an enzymatic amplification process. The probe DNA/GNP/dendrimer composite is prepared via the covalent coupling between the NH 2 groups in PAMAM or DNA and the COOH group on GNP. Target microRNA binds to a stem-loop-structured DNA on maganatic NPs, forming a heteroduplex . By enzyme recycling amplification, a large number of linker sequences are produced on MNPs . Via the combination of probe DNA , the linker DNA on MNPs and a capture DNA on gold chip, the DNA/GNP/dendrimer probe could be assembled on the surface of gold chip inducing a sensitive frequency response. It presents an excellent performance in microRNA-203 quantification with a detection linear range of 1.0×10 −11 –1.0×10 −9   M. Both the success in discriminating expressing miroRNA-203 in MCF-7 cell and the well agreement with the commercial qRT-PCR detection method implied its potential application in early cancer diagnosis for future.