Nanoparticle-Aided Amplification of Fluorescence Polarization for Ultrasensitively Monitoring Activity of Telomerase

To realize facile and reliable analyzing telomerase activity in homogeneous, herein, for the first time, a fluorescent polarization (FP) strategy was developed for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) free monitoring activity of human telomerase at single-cell level ground on gold nanoparticle (GNP) enhancement of FP. First, thiolated telomerase substrate (TS) primer is modified to the surface of GNP via Au-S bond. In the presence of telomerase, TS primer was extended via adding hexamer repeats (GGGTTA), leading to the formation of a long elongation DNA. Several short carboxyfluorescein (FAM)-modified complementary DNA (F-cDNA) can hybridize with the hexamer repeats, resulting in a sharp increase in FP value. Because of the GNP enhancement and self-amplification of telomerase, telomerase activity accounting to one HeLa cell can be rapidly detected in homogeneous solution. Telomerase activities of various cell lines were also favorably estimated. Meanwhile, the inhibition efficiency of telomerase inhibitor was studied, which holds great potential in screening telomerase-targeted anticancer drugs as well. So, a facile method was put forward to reliably and ultrasensitively detect telomerase activity.