An ‘activatable’ aptamer-based fluorescence probe for the detection of HepG2 cells

Lai,Zongqiang; Tan,Juntao; Wan,Ruirong; Tan,Jie; Zhang,Zhenghua; Hu,Zixi; Li,Jieping; Yang,Wei; Wang,Yiwei; Jiang,Yafeng; He,Jian; Yang,Nuo; Lu,Xiaoling; Zhao,Yongxiang

doi:10.3892/or.2017.5527

An ‘activatable’ aptamer-based fluorescence probe for the detection of HepG2 cells

Authors:
- Zongqiang Lai
- Juntao Tan
- Ruirong Wan
- Jie Tan
- Zhenghua Zhang
- Zixi Hu
- Jieping Li
- Wei Yang
- Yiwei Wang
- Yafeng Jiang
- Jian He
- Nuo Yang
- Xiaoling Lu
- Yongxiang Zhao
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Affiliations: National Center for International Research of Biological Targeting Diagnosis and Therapy, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Biological Targeting Diagnosis and Therapy Research, Collaborative Innovation Center for Targeting Tumor Diagnosis and Therapy, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, P.R. China
Published online on: March 24, 2017 https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2017.5527
Pages: 2688-2694
Copyright: © Lai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

It is significant to develop a probe with sensitivity and specificity for the detection of cancer cells. The present study aimed to develop an ‘activatable’ aptamer-based fluorescence probe (AAFP) to detect cancer cells and frozen cancer tissue. This AAFP consisted of two fragments: aptamer TLS11a that targets HepG2 cells, and two short extending complementary DNA sequences with a 5'- and 3'-terminus that make the aptamer in hairpin structure a capable quencher to fluorophore. The ability of the AAFP to bind specifically to cancer cells was assessed using flow cytometry, fluorescence spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy. Its ability to bind to frozen cancer tissue was assessed using fluorescence microscopy. As a result, in the absence of cancer cells, AAFP showed minimal fluorescence, reflecting auto-quenching. In the presence of cancer cells, however, AAFP showed a strong fluorescent signal. Therefore, this AAFP may be a promising tool for sensitive and specific detection of cancer.

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