Hairpin-fuelled catalytic nanobeacons for amplified microRNA imaging in live cells

Abstract

Direct imaging of low-abundance RNAs in live cells remains challenging because of the relatively low sensitivity of conventional molecular imaging probes. Here, we introduce hairpin-fuelled catalytic nanobeacons for microRNA (miRNA) imaging in live cells with signal amplification capacity. Compared with the conventional nanobeacons in solution, the catalytic nanobeacons could generate two orders of magnitude higher sensitivity.