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Development of Fluorescent Turn-On Probes for CAG-RNA Repeats

Authors :
Matthew Ho Yan Lau
Chun-Ho Wong
Ho Yin Edwin Chan
Ho Yu Au-Yeung
Source :
Biosensors, Vol 12, Iss 12, p 1080 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2022.

Abstract

Fluorescent sensing of nucleic acids is a highly sensitive and efficient bioanalytical method for their study in cellular processes, detection and diagnosis in related diseases. However, the design of small molecule fluorescent probes for the selective binding and detection of RNA of a specific sequence is very challenging because of their diverse, dynamic, and flexible structures. By modifying a bis(amidinium)-based small molecular binder that is known to selectively target RNA with CAG repeats using an environment-sensitive fluorophore, a turn-on fluorescent probe featuring aggregation-induced emission (AIE) is successfully developed in this proof-of-concept study. The probe (DB-TPE) exhibits a strong, 19-fold fluorescence enhancement upon binding to a short CAG RNA, and the binding and fluorescence response was found to be specific to the overall RNA secondary structure with A·A mismatches. These promising analytical performances suggest that the probe could be applied in pathological studies, disease progression monitoring, as well as diagnosis of related neurodegenerative diseases due to expanded CAG RNA repeats.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20796374
Volume :
12
Issue :
12
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Biosensors
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.0a4415ebbc7a4e238c24f9290440c0cc
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/bios12121080