Because
of insufficient information, a single biomarker is not
sufficient for early diagnosis of cancer, whereas sensitive and selective
detection of multiple biomolecules can significantly reduce analysis
time, sample size, and accurately perform cell screening in early
cancer. Therefore, the development of a noninvasive strategy that
can simultaneously quantify multiple biomarkers (i.e., nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules) in a single cell
is particularly important. Herein, a universal sensing system (functional
DNA@mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN)–Black Hole Quencher–rhodamine
6G (RhB), FDSBR), which is based on the combination of functionalized
DNA and smart responsive nanomaterial, was successfully constructed.
After incubation with the cells, different types of targets trigger
the strand displacement reaction to release the fluorophore-labeled
nucleic acids as the output signals to reflect the intracellular level
of the telomerase and adenosine triphosphate (ATP), respectively.
Simultaneously, intracellular miR-21 can be clearly indicated by the
restored fluorescence of RhB when the caged double-stranded DNA was
substituted into single-stranded DNA to open the pore. The concentrations
of intracellular telomerase, miR-21, and ATP were identified successfully
in three cell lines at the single-cell level. The results show that
the contents of three biomolecules have significant differences in
the three model cell lines and provide a promising route for developing
innovative early disease diagnosis and cell screening assay.