“Turn-off-on” fluorescent sensor for (N-methyl-4-pyridyl) porphyrin -DNA and G-quadruplex interactions based on ZnCdSe quantum dots

• Reversible fluorescence sensor was firstly used on TMPyP and G-quadruplex study.
• SsDNA and various G-quadruplexes were successfully recognized by fluorescence.
• The new quantum dot is hypotoxicity and can be extensively applied.

As a new detection model, the reversible fluorescence “turn-off-on” sensor based on quantum dots (QDs) has already been successfully employed in the detections of many biochemical materials, especially in the researches on the interactions between anticancer drugs. The previous studies, however, mainly focused on simple-structured oligonucleotides and Calf thymus DNA. G-quadruplex, an important target for anti-cancer drug with special secondary structure, has been stimulating increasing research interests. In this paper, we report a new detection method based on the fluorescence “turn-off-on” model with water-soluble ZnCdSe QDs as the fluorescent probe, to analyze the interactions between anticancer drug (N-methyl-4-pyridyl) porphyrin (TMPyP) and nucleic acid, especially the G-quadruplex. The fluorescence of QDs can be quenched by TMPyP via photo-induced electron transfer and fluorescence resonance energy transfer, while on the other hand, the combination between TMPyP and G-quadruplex releases QDs from their quenchers and thus recovers the fluorescence. Most importantly, the fluorescence “turn-off-on” model has been employed, for the first time, to analyze the impacts of special factors on the interaction between TMPyP and G-quadruplex. The excellent selectivity of the system has been verified in the studies of the interactions between TMPyP and different DNAs (double-stranded DNA, single-stranded G-quadruplex, and different types of G-quadruplexes) in Na+ or K+-containing buffer.

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