175. A minimal hybridization chain reaction (HCR) system using peptide nucleic acids
     K. T. Kim, S. Angerani, N. Winssinger
     Chem. Sci. 2021, 12, 8218-8223

HCR represents a powerful tool for amplification in DNA-based circuitry and sensing applications, yet requires the use of long DNA sequences to grant hairpin metastability. Here we describe a minimal HCR system based on peptide nucleic acids (PNA). A system comprised of 5-mer stem and 5-mer loop/toehold hairpins was found to be suitable to achieve rapid amplification. These hairpins were shown to yield >10-fold amplification in 2h and be suitable for the detection of a cancer biomarker on live cells. The use of ?-peg-modified PNA was found to be beneficial.

DOI: 10.1039/D1SC01269J 

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