Biomedical Engineering Reference
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Fig. 14.6 Self-assembly of a multicomponent nucleic acid structure for the detection of a target
DNA, the Mg 2C -dependent DNAzyme produces two copies of the HRP-mimicking DNAzyme
(Reproduced from Ref. [ 34 ] by permission of John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
The paradigm of self-assembly of nucleic acids into functional supramolecular
nanostructures was further developed by enhancing the complexity of the systems
and by designing assemblies that perform programmed transformations of several
DNAzymes, thus leading to multistep amplification [ 34 ]. Figure 14.6 depicts the
amplified detection of nucleic acids by a DNAzyme cascade where the supramolec-
ular activation of the Mg 2C -dependent DNAzyme triggered the generation of the
horseradish peroxidase-mimicking DNAzyme that provided the read-out signal of
the sensing process. The binding of a target nucleic acid induced the assembly of
the subunits of the Mg 2C -dependent DNAzyme. The bridging of the subunits by
the target acted cooperatively to bind the ribonucleic acid-containing substrate. The
substrate sequence contained two copies of the HRP-mimicking DNAzyme that
were separated by a single ribobase (rA) and caged in a quasi-circular structure
by the connecting nucleic acid. The cleavage of the substrate by the target-
activated DNAzyme resulted in the release of the two copies of the HRP-mimicking
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