A novel nanoparticle surface-constrained CRISPR-Cas12a 3D DNA walker-like nanomachines for sensitive and stable miRNAs detection

The CRISPR-Cas system has broad prospects as a new type of nucleic acid signal amplification technology based on the trans-cleavage activity of Cas12a to single-stranded DNA, but the trans-cleavage reaction efficiency is relatively low in solution. In order to overcome this negative factor, a new 3D DNA nanomachine whose CRISPR-Cas12a is limited to the surface of nanoparticles is used for sensitive and stable detection of miRNA. By loading Cas12a activator onto spherical nucleic acid (SNA), the CRISPR-Cas12a activator system on the surface of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) acts as a walker to carry out continuous recognition-walking-cutting reaction on the surface of AuNPs, which enhances the trans-cleavage activity of Cas12a to SNAs. Benefiting from the confinement effect of spherical nucleic acids surface, a 3D DNA nanomachine has been developed for the detection of miRNA-21, which has achieved high sensitivity and accuracy, and the detection limit is able to reach 8.0 pM. This new 3D DNA walker-like nanomachine provided another insight for future bioanalysis and early clinical diagnoses of disease and liquid biopsy.