MicroRNA-Initiated and Intracellular Na+-Fueled DNAzyme Motor for Differentiating Molecular Subtypes of Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer

Synthetic DNAzyme motors or machines hold great potential in the detection of intracellular microRNA (miRNA) and mRNA. However, to make intracellular DNAzyme motors or machines operate efficiently, adding exogenous metal ion cofactors as fuel is imperative, which limits their applications. Here, we reported a Na⁺-specific DNAzyme-based DNAzyme motor differentiating cell subtypes of nonsmall cell lung cancer by simultaneously sensing intracellular miRNA-21 and miRNA-205. The DNAzyme motor could be fueled by intracellular Na⁺, which avoids the necessity of adding exogenous cofactors. It could be also designed to detect other miRNAs or mRNAs by changing 12-nt DNA domain. Meanwhile, our DNAzyme motor had high sensitivity, excellent specificity, high biostability, and little cytotoxicity. Therefore, the miRNA-initiated and intracellular Na⁺-fueled DNAzyme motor can expand the application of DNAzyme motors or machines in sensing miRNA and has potential value in cancer clinical diagnosis and prognosis.