Novel nanosensors for rapid analysis of telomerase activity. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Elevated telomerase levels are found in many malignancies, offering an attractive target for therapeutic intervention and diagnostic or prognostic purposes. Here we describe the use of a novel nanosensor developed for rapid screens of telomerase activity in biological samples. The technique utilizes magnetic nanoparticles that, on annealing with telomerase synthesized TTAGGG repeats, switch their magnet state, a phenomenon readily detectable by magnetic readers. We tested the efficacy of different telomerase inhibitors in crude human and murine samples and show that phosphorylation of telomerase regulates its activity. High-throughput adaptation of the technique by magnetic resonance imaging allowed processing of hundreds of samples within tens of minutes at ultrahigh sensitivities. Together, these studies establish and validate a novel and powerful tool for rapidly sensing telomerase activity and provide the rationale for developing analogous magnetic nanoparticles for in vivo sensing.

publication date

  • January 15, 2004

Research

keywords

  • Telomerase

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 1642515770

PubMed ID

  • 14744779

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 64

issue

  • 2