Quencher Group Induced High Specificity Detection of Telomerase in Clear and Bloody Urines by AIEgens

Significance Statement

A study conducted by researchers from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China developed a highly specific new method for detection of telomerase activity from cultured tumor cells and primary cell specimens. The study is as the subsequent work in this systematic study of telomerase activity detection. This work maintains simplicity, high sensitivity, and rapidity. Furthermore, by drastically decreasing the fluorescence background, it obtains more remarkable specificity in contrast to the previous work. Urine specimens from 38 bladder cancer patients and 15 normal people are successfully detected using this method. Thus, this modified strategy could provide an efficient new tool with higher specificity and reliability for detection of telomerase activity and clinical diagnosis of cancer.

Journal Reference

Anal Chem. 2015 Sep 15;87(18):9487-93.

Zhuang Y¹, Zhang M¹, Chen B², Duan R¹, Min X¹, Zhang Z¹, Zheng F³, Liang H³, Zhao Z², Lou X¹, Xia F¹.

[expand title=”Show Affiliations”] TEXT [/expand]
¹Key Laboratory for Large-Format Battery Materials and System, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan 430074, China.
²State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology , Guangzhou 510640, China.
³Department of Urology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan 430022, China.

Abstract

Telomerase is a widely used tumor biomarker for early cancer diagnosis. On the basis of the combined use of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) fluorogens and quencher, a quencher group induced high specificity strategy for detection of telomerase activity from cell extracts and cancer patients’ urine specimens was creatively developed. In the absence of telomerase, fluorescence background is extremely low due to the short distance between quencher and AIE dye. In the addition of telomerase, fluorescence enhances significantly. The telomerase activity in the E-J, MCF-7, and HeLa extracts equivalent to 5-10 000 cells can be detected by this method in ∼1 h. Furthermore, the distinguishing of telomerase extracted from 38 cancer and 15 normal urine specimens confirms the reliability and practicality of this protocol. In contrast to our previous results (Anal. Chem. 2015, 87, 6822-6827), these advanced experiments obtain more remarkable specificity.

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About the author

Fan Xia is currently a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). He received his BS degree (2003) from HUST and Ph.D. degree (2008) from the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS) (Lei Jiang’s group). He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Alan J. Heeger’s group in University of California, Santa Barbara. He joined HUST as part of the 1000 Young Talents Program in 2012. His scientific interest is focused on Bio-Analytical Chemistry.

About the author

Xiaoding Lou is currently an associate professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). She received her Ph.D. degree (2012) from Wuhan University (Zhen Li’s group). She then worked as a Research Associate in Prof. Ben Zhong Tang’s group in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She joined HUST in 2013. Her scientific interest is focused on Chemical and Biosensor field.