Ultrasensitive visual detection of miRNA-143 using a CRISPR/Cas12a-based platform coupled with hyperbranched rolling circle amplification

MicroRNAs are proposed novel biomarker for noninvasive diagnosis of cancer. miRNA-143 is reported to be associated with the development of prostate cancer. However, detection of miRNAs is still challenging due to their unique characteristics, such as small size and high sequence homology among family members. We here developed a gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-based visual assay that combines with CRISPR/Cas12a-assisted hyperbranched rolling circle amplification (HRCA), which is called HRCA enhanced CRISPR/Cas12a-based assay (HECA) for sensitive detection of miRNA-143. The sequence-specific recognition character of CRISPR/Cas12a and HRCA signal amplification strategy enables the HECA outstanding specificity and sensitivity. In optimal condition, 1 fM miRNA-143 could be detected by naked eyes, and down to aM level with the aid of UV-Vis instrument. The diagnostic performance of the HECA for clinical samples was also evaluated based on the receiving operating characteristic algorithm (ROC), and our results suggest the miR-143 is a promising biomarker for noninvasive diagnosis of prostate cancer. This method is simple in operation and requires minimum instrument. We expect it to be widely applied in clinical diagnostics, especially in low-resource settings.