Concentration-Tunable Catalytic Strand-Driven Fast Self-Reinforcing Circular DNA Nanoamplifier under Precise Activation of NIR Light Guidance for Sensitive Fluorescence Imaging

Although there is great promise in cascaded DNA nanoamplifiers for fluorescence imaging, several key hurdles (e.g., insufficient sensitivity, suboptimal reaction kinetics, and unsatisfactory detection precision) should be further addressed. Herein, we construct a concentration-tunable catalytic strand-driven fast self-reinforcing circular DNA nanoamplifier guided by the precise activation of near-infrared (NIR) light. An exogenous concentration-tunable catalytic strand is first introduced into a three-round amplified circular route, transitioning from hybridization chain reaction (HCR) to catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) and then back to HCR-CHA, thereby fastly driving a more robust exponential signal enhancement. Next, a DNA unit is inserted with a facile photocleavable coupler, by which the biosensing course can be precisely activated by 365 nm ultraviolet upconverting luminescence converted from NIR light guidance. Upon selecting a cancer-related universal marker (microRNA-21) as the model target, this new DNA nanoamplifier showcases remarkable biosensing competence. Moreover, fluorescence imaging is reliably conducted in live cellular environments and even extended to animal models, boosting the advancement of DNA nanoamplifiers in biomedical realm.