Molecular beacon is a promising tool for mRNA detection in living cells. But the low detecting efficiency and narrow application range limited its development. In this study, we synthesized a novel gold nanoparticle (AuNP) beacon by optimizing the sequence amount and modified polyethylene glycol (PEG) and cell‐penetrating peptide (CPP) on the gold core. Then, the mechanism of beacon cell uptake was investigated. Lastly, we used the AuNP beacon to study the Akt‐mTOR‐HIF‐1 signaling pathway and the function and mechanism of miR‐7 in breast tumor cells. The results showed that the optimization obviously amplified the fluorescence signal of the AuNP beacon. The mechanism study described the process of AuN... More
Molecular beacon is a promising tool for mRNA detection in living cells. But the low detecting efficiency and narrow application range limited its development. In this study, we synthesized a novel gold nanoparticle (AuNP) beacon by optimizing the sequence amount and modified polyethylene glycol (PEG) and cell‐penetrating peptide (CPP) on the gold core. Then, the mechanism of beacon cell uptake was investigated. Lastly, we used the AuNP beacon to study the Akt‐mTOR‐HIF‐1 signaling pathway and the function and mechanism of miR‐7 in breast tumor cells. The results showed that the optimization obviously amplified the fluorescence signal of the AuNP beacon. The mechanism study described the process of AuNP beacon cellular uptake and confirmed amplifying the amount of beacon cellular uptake could obviously enhance the fluorescence signal. Compared to results, the accuracy of the gold nanoparticle beacon is similar to the results of real‐time‐Q‐PCR (RT‐PCR) and western blotting but that the operation is much simpler. Furthermore, in this study, we found that our Akt gold nanoparticle beacon had a similar function to that of the Akt small interfering RNA (siRNA). In summary, the gold nanoparticle beacon may be a promising method for the study of signaling pathways.
