Asymmetric Hairpins DNA Encapsulated Silver Nanoclusters for In Situ Fluorescence Imaging of Fusion Gene Isoforms in Bone Marrow

Abstract Rapid and accurate imaging of the BCR/ABL fusion gene isoforms (e.g., e13a2, e14a2 and co‐expression type) of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is of vital importance to first‐line drug selection, but there is no assay that meets clinical needs (e.g., clinical kits > 18 h without isoforms information). Herein, an in situ imaging platform is developed for the rapid and accurate detection of CML fusion gene isoforms using asymmetric sequence‐enhanced hairpins DNA encapsulated silver nanoclusters (ADHA) and catalyzed hairpin assembly (CHA). The specific detection of e13a2 and e14a2 fusion gene isoforms with detection limits of 19.2 am (11.558 copies µL⁻¹) and 32.56 am (19.601 copies µL⁻¹) in one‐pot is achieved. The feasibility of the developed assay for real‐world applications are demonstrated by one‐step fluorescence imaging (40 min) of e13a2, e14a2 and co‐expression type in bone marrow quantitatively (International Standard: 15.66%–168.878%) and further validated by cDNA‐sequencing. This work suggests that the developed imaging platform holds great potential for rapid identification of the fusion gene isoforms and isoform related treatment monitoring.