MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small biological molecules (18-25 bp) that are believed to play a critical role in the post-transcriptional regulation of proteins. Due to the important role they play in a wide array of biological processes including tumor regulation, miRNAs can serve as effective biomarkers to diagnose clinical disease states. Since the implications for microRNA diagnosis was established, various novel methods to detect miRNA have been developed. However, there remains a need for a selective, quantitative, and cost-effective method for diagnostic miRNA detection. Biosensors present a promising method that address challenges with existing methods. In this study, the biosensor is a rationally designed aptamer scaffold developed to detect miRNA-92a, a member of the microRNA 17~92 cluster which has been implicated in a number of cancers. Included in this aptamer’s design is a signal transduction region, which can provide a quantitative assessment of miRNA levels.  Small molecules such as adenine triphosphate (ATP), flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), and flavin mononucleotide (FMN) can be used as a signal transduction trigger in these rationally designed biosensors. These newly designed aptamer scaffolds have been probed for specificity with base-pair mismatches and non-specific miR’s.  Relevant binding data was acquired using isothermal calorimetry (ITC). Ideally, this scaffold design process could be easily adapted to any microRNA biomarker of interest and will be expanded to encompass other miR sequences from the cluster.

Aptamer modification for microRNA 17~92 cluster detection

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