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Nucleic acid tool enzymes-aided signal amplification strategy for biochemical analysis: status and challenges

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Abstract

Owing to their highly efficient catalytic effects and substrate specificity, the nucleic acid tool enzymes are applied as ‘nano-tools’ for manipulating different nucleic acid substrates both in the test-tube and in living organisms. In addition to the function as molecular scissors and molecular glue in genetic engineering, the application of nucleic acid tool enzymes in biochemical analysis has also been extensively developed in the past few decades. Used as amplifying labels for biorecognition events, the nucleic acid tool enzymes are mainly applied in nucleic acids amplification sensing, as well as the amplification sensing of biorelated variations of nucleic acids. With the introduction of aptamers, which can bind different target molecules, the nucleic acid tool enzymes-aided signal amplification strategies can also be used to sense non-nucleic targets (e.g., ions, small molecules, proteins, and cells). This review describes and discusses the amplification strategies of nucleic acid tool enzymes-aided biosensors for biochemical analysis applications. Various analytes, including nucleic acids, ions, small molecules, proteins, and cells, are reviewed briefly. This work also addresses the future trends and outlooks for signal amplification in nucleic acid tool enzymes-aided biosensors.

Nucleic acid tool enzymes-aided signal amplification sensing

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Key Project of Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 21175039, 21322509, 21305035, 21190044, and 21221003), Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (grant no. 20110161110016), and the project supported by Hunan Provincial Innovation Foundation for Postgraduate (grant no. CX2015B072).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Kemin Wang, Fengzhou Xu, Jingfang Shangguan & Yanli Lei

  2. College of Biology, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Taiping Qing, Xiaoxiao He, Li Wen & Zhengui Mao

  3. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Key Laboratory for Bio-Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering of Hunan Province, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China

    Dinggeng He

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  1. Taiping Qing
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  2. Dinggeng He
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  3. Xiaoxiao He
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  4. Kemin Wang
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  5. Fengzhou Xu
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Correspondence to Xiaoxiao He or Kemin Wang.

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Published in the topical collection featuring Young Investigators in Analytical and Bioanalytical Science with guest editors S. Daunert, A. Baeumner, S. Deo, J. Ruiz Encinar, and L. Zhang.

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Qing, T., He, D., He, X. et al. Nucleic acid tool enzymes-aided signal amplification strategy for biochemical analysis: status and challenges. Anal Bioanal Chem 408, 2793–2811 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9240-y

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