Target invasion-triggered signal amplification based on duplex-specific nuclease for selective and sensitive detection of miRNAs

Dysregulation of MicroRNAs (miRNAs) cause various diseases in humans, and developing reliable methods to detect miRNAs is critical for molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine. This study developed a toehold-mediated target invasion combined with duplex-specificity nuclease (DSN)-assisted cyclic signal amplification fluorescent sensor. Herein, we take advantage of toehold-mediated target invasion process to ensure the high selectivity of miRNA determination, coupled with the unique cleavage properties of DSN to improve the sensitivity of the strategy significantly. Throughout the assay, the whole procedure of detection the target let-7a has a limit of detection (LOD) as low as 9.00 fM and an excellent linear range from 1 pM to 100 nM for no more than 60 min. The assay shows reasonable specificity in detecting mismatched miRNAs and can realize single-base discrimination in the let-7 families. Finally, the developed method was applied to detect the miRNAs extracted from human serum. The results were consistent with those based on the quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction(qRT-PCR) method, which shows great potential application value in clinical molecular diagnostics and biological research.