Aptamer-based protein molecule detection via cyclic reverse transcription coupling with self-priming hairpin-triggered CRISPR-Cas12a system

Abstract

Protein biomarkers (e.g. thrombin) are of great significance for the biological process of the organism, and its aberrant expression is closely associated with the development of diseases. With thrombin, a serine protease that plays a crucial role in maintaining homeostasis and promoting blood clotting, as detection target, this study introduces a novel approach for sensitive and accurate measurement of protein biomarker expression by utilization of cyclic reverse transcription (CRT) in combination with the self-priming hairpin-triggered CRISPR-Cas12a system. In this method, an elegantly designed sensing probe is utilized to specifically bind with the thrombin protein and convert the protein signals to nucleic acids signals, following by the CRT and CRISPR-Cas12a system-based signal amplification strategy. Taking the merit of the two-stage amplification, this assay has the capability to detect thrombin at the fM level. In addition, due to the aptamer sequence’s strong selectivity to thrombin protein and the dual-check process in the signal amplification process (first in the CRT and second in the CRISPR system), the proposed test demonstrates exceptional specificity in detecting thrombin. By re-designing the sensing probe, the established method could be extended to various protein biomarker detection. Ultimately, this assay has successfully enabled the accurate evaluation of biomarker levels in constructed clinical samples, showing significant potential for application in the realm of clinical molecular diagnosis.