Electrochemical molecular beacon biosensor for sequence-specific recognition of double-stranded DNA

Direct recognition of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) was crucial to disease diagnosis and gene therapy, because DNA in its natural state is double stranded. Here, a novel sensor for the sequence-specific recognition of dsDNA was developed based on the structure change of ferrocene (Fc) redox probe modified molecular beacon (MB). For constructing such a sensor, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were initially electrochemical-deposited onto glass carbon electrode (GCE) surface to immobilize thiolated MB in their folded states with Au-S bond. Hybridization of MB with target dsDNA induced the formation of parallel triplex DNA and opened the stem-loop structure of it, which resulted in the redox probe (Fc) away from the electrode and triggered the decrease of current signals. Under optimal conditions, dsDNA detection could be realized in the range from 350 pM to 25 nM, with a detection limit of 275 pM. Moreover, the proposed method has good sequence-specificity for target dsDNA compared with single base pair mismatch and two base pairs mismatches.