High-throughput identification of telomere-binding ligands based on the fluorescence regulation of DNA-copper nanoparticles

Formation of the G-quadruplex in the human telomeric DNA is an effective way to inhibit telomerase activity. Therefore, screening ligands of G-quadruplex has potential applications in the treatment of cancer by inhibit telomerase activity. Although several techniques have been explored for screening of telomeric G-quadruplexes ligands, high-throughput screening method for fast screening telomere-binding ligands from the large compound library is still urgently needed. Herein, a label-free fluorescence strategy has been proposed for high-throughput screening telomere-binding ligands by using DNA-copper nanoparticles (DNA-CuNPs) as a signal probe. In the absence of ligands, human telomeric DNA (GDNA) hybridized with its complementary DNA (cDNA) to form double stranded DNA (dsDNA) which can act as an efficient template for the formation of DNA-CuNPs, leading to the high fluorescence of DNA-CuNPs. In the presence of ligands, GDNA folded into G-quadruplex. Single-strdanded cDNA does not support the formation of DNA-CuNP, resulting in low fluorescence of DNA-CuNPs. Therefore, telomere-binding ligands can be high-throughput screened by monitoring the change in the fluorescence of DNA-CuNPs. Thirteen traditional chinese medicines were screened. Circular dichroism (CD) measurements demonstrated that the selected ligands could induce single-stranded telomeric DNA to form G-quadruplex. The telomere repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay demonstrated that the selected ligands can effectively inhibit telomerase activity. Therefore, it offers a cost-effective, label-free and reliable high-throughput way to identify G-quadruplex ligands, which holds great potential in discovering telomerase-targeted anticancer drugs. •A label-free fluorescence strategy has been proposed for screening telomere-binding ligands.•In-situ synthesized DNA-copper nanoparticle was used as a signal probe.•The proposed strategy is the actual high-throughput method.•This assay is accomplished in a homogeneous solution within 60min.