Discrimination of methylated and nonmethylated region of a colorectal cancer related promoter using fluorescence enhancement of gold nanocluster at intrastrand of a 9C-loop

Among epigenetic modifications of DNA, methylation of cytosine at its carbon 5 is the most common mark that is usually associated with gene silencing in human. Determining whether a particular DNA molecule is methylated or not, is an indispensable task in many epigenetic investigations. Presenting detection methods with less labor-intensive and time-consuming procedures has substantial value. Here a facile method based on gold nanocluster (AuNCs) fluorescence enhancement is presented. Target sequences were selected from Sept9 promoter region as its hypermethylation is demonstrated as a reliable biomarker of colorectal cancer. DNA probe was complementary to a 25 nucleotide of the target region and possessed 9 additional cytosines in the middle to allow the formation of AuNCs. Probe-AuNCs strands were first hybridized with methylated and non-methylated targets separately, and then their fluorescence intensities were recorded. Fluorescence intensity was higher with methylated targets than non-methylated one. Applying silver ions reversed the situation and fluorescence intensities of non-methylated DNA got higher than methylated one.