US 2020/0326334 A1 · A NANOPARTICLE-BASED TELOMERASE ASSAY

Abstract

The invention relates to methods for producing gold nanoparticles functionalised with a telomerase substrate, or a linker nucleic acid having a region complementary to a nucleic acid comprising a telomerase substrate, for use in detecting telomerase activity. Functionalised gold nanoparticle solutions and functionalised gold nanoparticles obtained using the method are also provided for. The invention further relates to a functionalised gold nanoparticle complex, comprising gold nanoparticles coupled to a linker nucleic acid which is hybridised to a nucleic acid comprising a telomerase substrate. Telomerase assays using the functionalised gold nanoparticles or functionalised gold nanoparticle complexes of the invention and kits for detecting telomerase activity in a cell, comprising the functionalised gold nanoparticles or functionalised gold nanoparticle complexes of the invention are also provided for.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A method of producing gold nanoparticles functionalised to detect telomerase activity, the method comprising:

a) combining a gold salt with sodium citrate to obtain a gold nanoparticle solution;
b) adding a thiolated nucleic acid to the gold nanoparticle solution;
and
c) adding a buffer having a pH of about 1-4 to obtain a functionalised gold nanoparticle solution;
wherein the thiolated nucleic acid is (i) a thiolated telomerase substrate;
or (ii) a thiolated linker nucleic acid having complementarity to a nucleic acid comprising a telomerase substrate.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

A nanoparticle-based telomerase assay

Life of this patent

A nanoparticle-based telomerase assay

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21