Yang Xiaohai

Monitoring p21 mRNA expression in living cell based on molecular beacon fluorescence increasing rate

Studying the expression level of mRNA in living cells will offer tremendous opportunities for advancement in cell biology research, disease diagnostics, and drug discovery. In this paper, a molecular beacon (MB) specific for the important tumor suppressor gene p21 has been designed and synthesized. The fluorescence signal was detected in real-time after the MB entered the cytoplasm of nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells. After injecting the p21MB into nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell and p33-transfected nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell, the consistent increase of fluorescent signal intensity was detected in both cell lines, and maximum fluorescence intensity achieved in about 15 min. In about 4 min following microinjection, the fluorescence increasing rate was significantly different between these two cell lines, which indicate the different p21 mRNA expression levels. The results obtained in the real-time detection were also validated by RT-PCR. Analysis of the initial fluorescence increasing rate can efficiently reduce the side effect of enzyme and improve the accuracy in living cell mRNA detection.