Recently, the research article— "Thermus thermophiles Argonaute-based signal amplifier for highly sensitive and specific microRNA detection" was published online in the cutting-edge journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology (JCR Q1, IF: 5.7) by Professor Feifan Zhou's team. The paper's first author is undergraduate student Ziqi Wang from our institution's Class of 2020, and the second author is Zitong Wang. This groundbreaking achievement marks the first time that an undergraduate student from our institution has published a research paper as the first author in an international academic journal. Under the guidance of Professor Feifan Zhou and Associate Professor Ru Huang, this study explores the functional characteristics of the novel "gene scissors" tool Argonaute and utilized it to construct a highly sensitive microRNA detection system.
microRNA, a class of short RNA (~20-25 nt) that can play crucial regulatory roles in various biological processes. Abnormal expression of microRNA is closely associated with the occurrence and development of many diseases, such as cancer, making them highly promising diagnostic biomarkers. In recent years, prokaryotic gene defense systems, such as the well-known CRISPR system, have been found to possess highly specific and programmable gene-targeting activities, which have been widely applied in gene editing and expression regulation. Argonaute, a CRISPR-associated protein, offers advantages such as simpler composition and greater design flexibility. This study systematically explores the cleavage characteristics of Argonaute derived from Gram-negative thermophilic bacterium Thermus thermophiles and establishes an exonuclease III-assisted target recycled amplification system (exoAgo) for highly sensitive microRNA detection. The research findings demonstrate that exoAgo enables picomolar-level detection of miRNA and achieves discrimination of single-base differences among miRNA within the same family, while maintaining good detection capabilities in serum-mimicking samples. This study provides insights into the further application of Argonaute in nucleic acid detection and offers a novel approach for highly sensitive microRNA detection.
Since its establishment, our college has attached great importance to undergraduate education and actively built research training platforms for undergraduate students. Adopting a "mentorship system" training model, we aim to cultivate high-level talents in medical and health innovation and entrepreneurship, who will become the elite in the scientific and engineering fields of health industry technological innovation and high-quality development in Hainan and across the country. The publication of high-quality research papers by undergraduate students is a testament to the achievements of our institution's reform and innovation in undergraduate talent cultivation system. This research work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation and the Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation through their general projects.
Figure. The principalofexoAgo detection.
