The invention relates to a simple and novel EXPAR-assisted self-supplied crRNA-mediated
CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) / Cas12a (
CRISPR / Cas12a) fluorescent
biosensor, which is used for ultra-sensitive detection of miRNA (micro Ribonucleic Acid) in
breast cancer. The detection process of the sensor comprises three key steps: EXPAR amplification, connection identification and Cas12a trans-splitting
decomposition. By combining EXPAR, a transcription process driven by connection recognition and a
CRISPR / Cas12a
signal amplification mechanism, the
system realizes triple
signal amplification, so that the detection sensitivity is remarkably improved, and miR-155 as low as 375.8 aM can be detected. A transcription process driven by connection recognition is introduced between EXPAR and CRISPR / Cas12a, so that background interference is effectively reduced, which is benefited from the accurate recognition capability of special
DNA ligase on a mononucleotide specific sequence. In addition, due to the flexible design of the EXPAR template, the strategy can detect various different miRNA targets with high sensitivity. It is worth noting that the sensor shows good reliability in a complex sample and is successfully applied to detection of miR-155 in
tumor cells.