Nanoparticles found effective in detecting enzyme Telomerase
29 July 2008Enzyme Telomerase prevents the shortening of chromosomes after division. Therefore, Telomerase activity is continuously required to be monitored as it is suspected to play an important role in cancer diagnosis. Although many methods have been developed for Telomerase diagnosis, none of them are accurate.
Recently the researchers at Northwestern University’s Nanomaterials for Cancer Diagnostics and Therapeutics have created a nanoparticle assay that is more accurate and is also suitable for clinical use. Dr. Ched Mirkin and his research team have created a new assay and published their findings in the Journal of American Chemical Soceity.
The system developed by researchers consist a gold nanoparticle and it is coated with short stretches of DNA. These stretches can act as a substrate for enzyme Telomerase. Telomerase binds with DNA sequences and adds 6 specific nucleotides at the end of DNA. After washing Telomerase, magnetic nanoparticles coated with oligonucleotide are added to the system.
These magnetic nanoparticles bind to the enlarge DNA and therefore by using a magnetic field, these can be separated from rest of the nanoparticles. Further by removing DNA sequences, these gold nanoparticles are detected for Telomerase activity and researchers were able to detect the change in Telomerase activity with the addition of known enzyme.
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