Highly Sensitive and Selective Strategy for MicroRNA Detection Based on WS2 Nanosheet Mediated Fluorescence Quenching and Duplex-Specific Nuclease Signal Amplification

Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play vital roles in physiologic and pathologic processes and are significant biomarkers for disease diagnostics and therapeutics. However, rapid, low-cost, sensitive, and selective detection of miRNAs remains a challenge because of their short length, sequence homology, and low abundance. Herein, we report for the first time that WS₂ nanosheet can exhibit differential affinity toward short oligonucleotide fragment versus ssDNA probe and act as an efficient quencher for adsorbed fluorescent probes. This finding is utilized to develop a new strategy for simple, sensitive, and selective detection of miRNA by combining WS₂ nanosheet based fluorescence quenching with duplex-specific nuclease signal amplification (DSNSA). This assay exhibits highly sensitive and selective with a detection limit of 300 fM and even discriminate single-base difference between the miRNA family members. The result indicates that this simple and cost-effective strategy holds great potential application in biomedical research and clinical diagnostics.