Programmable CRISPR-Cas12a and self-recruiting crRNA assisted dual biosensing platform for simultaneous detection of lung cancer biomarkers hOGG1 and FEN1

Human 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase (hOGG1) and flap endonuclease 1 (FEN1) are recognized as potential biomarkers in lung cancer investigations. Developing analytical platforms of simultaneously targeting hOGG1 and FEN1 with high selectivity, sensitivity, especially programmability and universality is highly valuable for clinical research. Herein, we established a signal-amplified platform for simultaneously detecting hOGG1 and FEN1 on the basis of cleavage-induced ligation of DNA dumbbell probes, rolling circle transcription (RCT) and CRISPR-Cas12a. A hOGG1 cleavable site and FEN1 cleavable flap were dexterously designed at the 5’ end of DNA flapped dumbbell probes (FDP) for hOGG1 and FEN1. After cleavage, the resulting nick sites with juxtaposition of 5′ phosphate and 3′ hydroxyl terminus could be linked to closed DNA dumbbell probes (CDP) by DNA ligase. The CDP served as a template for RCT, producing plentiful crRNA repeats to activate the trans-cleavage activity of CRISPR-Cas12a which could cleave fluorophores (TAMRA and FAM) and quenchers (BHQ2 and BHQ1) double-labeled ssDNA reporters. Then, hOGG1 and FEN1 could be detected by the recovered fluorescence signal, allowing for the highly sensitive calculated detection limits of 0.0013 and 0.0052 U/mL, respectively. Additionally, this method made it possible to evaluate the inhibitory effects, even to measure hOGG1 and FEN1 activities at the single-cell level. This novel target enzyme-initiated, circles-transcription without promoters, real-time generation, and self-assembly features of FDP-RCT-Cas12a system suppressed nonspecific background remarkably and relieved rigorous requirement of protospacer adjacent motif site. Hence, the universality of FDP-RCT-Cas12a system toward various disease-related non-nucleic acid targets which are tested without using aptamers was extremely improved. [Display omitted] •Target enzymes induced dual-amplification (RCT/Cas12a) to realize sensitive analysis.•Simultaneously detecting hOGG1 and FEN1 in human serum and A549 cells was achieved.•The work enabled transcription without promoters and refrain of nonspecific signal.•The multiplex strategy can avoid false positive or negative results.