Modulating fluorescence anisotropy of dye-labeled DNA without involving mass amplification.

Fluorescence anisotropy, known as a simple, homogeneous and cost-effective analytical technology, is an invaluable technique for studying the micro-environmental changes of the dye associated with the molecular interactions. An in-depth understanding of the variables affecting the fluorescence anisotropy signal can facilitate better experimental designs to effectively improve the analytical performance. This work is a follow-up effort in evaluating the factors that can significantly influence fluorescence anisotropy. We systematically studied fluorescence anisotropy of dsDNA with the changing length based on dye-DNA interactions, with the fluorophores in the end-labeling, the middle-site-labeling, and multiple number of labeling manners. The fluorescence anisotropy value and the base-pair response dynamic range could be expanded by labeling the fluorophores in the middle of dsDNA and increasing the number of labels on dsDNA. The C overhang configuration in the end-labeling manner could enhance the fluorescence anisotropy signal but not expand the base-pair response range. Results from all the labeling fluorophores reinforced the leveling-off effect, i.e., the fluorescence anisotropy signal does not response to the increased length of the DNA duplex when the length is larger than a critical number of base pairs. These findings provide perspectives about choosing appropriate fluorescent dyes and labeling sites for simple and universal fluorescence anisotropy designs in various applications.

A simple approach to study the conformational switching of i-motif DNA by fluorescence anisotropy.

Fluorescence anisotropy, dictated by the rotational diffusion of the fluorophore associated entity, is sensitive to the volume and structural changes, and the measurements can be performed in a homogeneous manner. In this work, a simple approach based on fluorescence anisotropy was proposed for the study of conformational switching of the i-motif structure. Factors influencing the stability of the i-motif structure, including the composition of buffer, the number of i-motif tetrads and coexistence of the complementary DNA, were investigated in detail. This study elucidated the superiority of the fluorescence anisotropy measurement as a simple, cost-effective and sensitive method for the detection of DNA structural switching, opening a new avenue for the research of DNA structures and functions.

Modulating fluorescence anisotropy of terminally labeled double-stranded DNA via the interaction between dye and nucleotides for rational design of DNA recognition based applications.

Effective signal enhancement for fluorescence anisotropy in a simple manner is most desirable for fluorescence anisotropy method development. This work aimed to provide insights into the fluorescence anisotropy of terminally labeled double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) to facilitate a facile and universal design strategy for DNA recognition based applications. We demonstrated that fluorescence anisotropy of dsDNA could be regulated by the nature of dyes, the molecular volume, and the end structure of dsDNA. Fluorescence anisotropy ascended with the increased number of base pairs up to 18 bp and leveled off thereafter, indicating the molecular volume was not the only factor responsible for fluorescence anisotropy. By choosing dyes with the positively charged center, high fluorescence anisotropy signal was obtained due to the confinement of the segmental motion of dyes through the electrostatic interaction. By properly designing the end structure of dsDNA, fluorescence anisotropy could be further improved by enlarging the effective overall rotational volume, as supported by two-dimensional (2D) (1)H-(1)H nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy (NOESY). With the successful enhancement of the fluorescence anisotropy for terminally labeled dsDNA, simple and universal designs were demonstrated by sensing of major classes of analytes from macromolecules (DNA and protein) to small molecules (cocaine).

A dual amplification strategy for DNA detection combining bio-barcode assay and metal-enhanced fluorescence modality.

Silver-enhanced fluorescence was coupled with a bio-barcode assay to facilitate a dual amplification assay to demonstrate a non-enzymatic approach for simple and sensitive detection of DNA. In the assay design, magnetic nanoparticles seeded with silver nanoparticles were modified with the capture DNA, and silver nanoparticles were modified with the binding of ssDNA and the fluorescently labeled barcode dsDNA. Upon introduction of the target DNA, a sandwich structure was formed because of the hybridization reaction. By simple magnetic separation, silver-enhanced fluorescence of barcode DNAs could be readily measured without the need of a further step to liberate barcode DNAs from silver nanoparticles, endowing the method with simplicity and high sensitivity with a detection limit of 1 pM.

A distance-dependent metal-enhanced fluorescence sensing platform based on molecular beacon design.

A new metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) based platform was developed on the basis of distance-dependent fluorescence quenching-enhancement effect, which combined the easiness of Ag-thiol chemistry with the MEF property of noble-metal structures as well as the molecular beacon design. For the given sized AgNPs, the fluorescence enhancement factor was found to increase with a d(6) dependency in agreement with fluorescence resonance energy transfer mechanism at shorter distance and decrease with a d(-3) dependency in agreement with plasmonic enhancement mechanism at longer distance between the fluorophore and the AgNP surface. As a proof of concept, the platform was demonstrated by a sensitive detection of mercuric ions, using thymine-containing molecular beacon to tune silver nanoparticle (AgNP)-enhanced fluorescence. Mercuric ions were detected via formation of a thymine-mercuric-thymine structure to open the hairpin, facilitating fluorescence recovery and AgNP enhancement to yield a limit of detection of 1 nM, which is well below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulation of the Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (10nM) in drinking water. Since the AgNP functioned as not only a quencher to reduce the reagent blank signal but also an enhancement substrate to increase fluorescence of the open hairpin when target mercuric ions were present, the quenching-enhancement strategy can greatly improve the detection sensitivity and can in principle be a universal approach for various targets when combined with molecular beacon design.

The electron-transfer based interaction between transition metal ions and photoluminescent graphene quantum dots (GQDs): a platform for metal ion sensing.

The electron-transfer based quenching effect of commonly encountered transition metal ions on the photoluminescence of grapheme quantum dots (GQDs) was for the first time investigated, and was found to be associated with electron configuration of the individual metal ion. Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), the metal ion chelator, can competitively interact with metal ions to recover the quenched photoluminescence of GQDs. Basically, metal ions with empty or completely filled d orbits could not quench the photoluminescence of GQDs, but this quenching effect was observed for the metal ions with partly filled d orbits. Based on the quenching-recovering strategy, a simple optical metal sensing platform was established by taking Ni(2+) as an example. Using the nickel ion-specific chelating reagent, dimethylglyoxime (DMG), to replace EDTA, a detection limit of 4.1 µM was obtained in standard solution. This proposed strategy does not need further functionalization of GQDs, facilitating the application for simple, fast and cost-effective screening of metal ions.

N-acetylcysteine induced quenching of red fluorescent oligonucleotide-stabilized silver nanoclusters and the application in pharmaceutical detection.

In this work, we reported a new, simple and sensitive method for determination of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) based on quenching of the red fluorescence of oligonuleotide-protected silver nanoculsters (Ag NCs) with the quantum yield of 68.3±0.3%. This method was successfully used for the assay of NAC granules presenting a linear range from 100 nM to 1200 nM (LOD of 50 nM) with minimal interferences from potential coexisting substances. It is for the first time that quenching performance of the thiol-containing compound was found to follow a non-linear Stern-Volmer profile, indicative of a complicated quenching mechanism with static quenching dominating, in which DNA-template of Ag NCs was partly replaced by NAC, as elucidated by spectral investigations. This study extended the analytical application of silver nanoclusters as well as provided a more insightful understanding of the quenching mechanism of thiol-compounds on the fluorescence of Ag NCs.

Gold nanoparticle enhanced fluorescence anisotropy for the assay of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) based on toehold-mediated strand-displacement reaction.

We developed a highly differentiating, homogeneous gold nanoparticle (AuNP) enhanced fluorescence anisotropic method for single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection at nanomolar level using toehold-mediated strand-displacement reaction. The template strand, containing a toehold domain with an allele-specific site, was immobilized on the surface of AuNPs, and the solution fluorescence anisotropy was markedly enhanced when the fluorescein-labeled blocking DNA was attached to the AuNP via hybridization. Strand-displacement by the target ssDNA strand resulted in detachment of fluorescein-labeled DNA from AuNPs, and thus decreased fluorescence anisotropy. The drastic kinetic difference in strand-displacement from toehold design was used to distinguish between the perfectly matched and the single-base mismatched strands. Free energy changes were calculated to elucidate the dependence of the differentiation ability on the mutation site in the toehold region. A solid negative signal change can be obtained for single-base mismatched strand in the dynamic range of the calibration curve, and a more than 10-fold signal difference can still be observed in a mixed solution containing 100 times the single-base mismatched strand, indicating the good specificity of the method. This proposed method can be performed with a standard spectrofluorimeter in a homogeneous and cost-effective manner, and has the potential to be extended to the application of fluorescence anisotropy method of SNP detection.

The homogeneous fluorescence anisotropic sensing of salivary lysozyme using the 6-carboxyfluorescein-labeled DNA aptamer.

A simple and sensitive fluorescence anisotropy method was developed for lysozyme, employing the coupling of fluorophore, 6-carboxyfluorescein (FAM), with lysozyme upon recognition between the target molecule and its DNA aptamer. It was found in this study that the rotational dynamic of the detecting system is crucial to obtain a high anisotropy signal that cannot always be achieved by simply increasing the molecular volume, because molecular volume increase may not be able to efficiently retard the rotational movement of the fluorophore. FAM was selected as the label of the ssDNA aptamer to effectively facilitate the change of the fluorophore from a primarily independent segmental movement to slow global rotation. The time-resolved measurements, including lifetime and dynamic fluorescence anisotropy, were conducted to study the recognition interaction and to better understand the methodology. The proposed method had a wide linear dynamic range of 12.5-300 nM and a high sensitivity with the limit of detection of 4.9 nM (3S/N). This proposed method was successfully applied to assay of human salivary lysozyme. The results based on the standard addition recovery and comparison with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) demonstrated the feasibility of this method for biological samples. Using coupling between the fluorophore and the analyte can be one of the approaches working toward expanding the application of fluorescence anisotropy based on aptamer-target and antibody-antigen recognitions.