Product-induced catalytic amplification strategy based on DNA tetrahedron for detection of miRNA-21 in colorectal cancer

A product-induced catalytic amplification (PICA) strategy had been developed for miRNA-21 detection based on DNA tetrahedron module (DTM). The produced DNA fragment could open hairpin structure and increase the concentration of catalyst, accelerating the circular cleavage reaction on DTM by DNAzyme cleavage. The continuously cleavage of DNAzyme on DTM resulted the greatly enhancement of signal. A favorable linear range was achieved from 20 pM to 5 nM with a limit of detection of 7 pM. Furthermore, through the implementation of the PICA strategy, the overall reaction time experienced a noticeable decrease to 30 min. The assessments of the amplification rate and kinetic constant of the PICA strategy were also conducted. These results highlighted the promising potential of the PICA strategy for practical utilization in serum samples.