The development of amplification strategies is one of the central challenges for detection of low-abundance targets.One-to-many(1:M)amplification strategies in which one target lights many signal probes,has improved the detection sensitivity in bulk solution,but with discounted contrast in cell imag-ing,because the lighted probes are dissociative and dispersible.In this work,a one-to-large(1:L)signaling mechanism,in which the lighted probes were orderly connected to each other,was conceptually pro-posed to enhance the contrast in cell imaging by avoiding signal dispersion in amplification.Accordingly,target-triggered hairpin-free chain-branching assembly(HFCBA)holds great potential to implement the 1:L mechanism,but using it in cell imaging has yet to be demonstrated.As a proof of concept,a group of probes were first programmed to implement miRNA-21-triggered HFCBA.After transfection of probes,gradually-growing signal flares in cells were monitored along with the growth of DNA dendrimers;and the in situ fluorescence accumulation in HFCBA resulted in highly-enhanced contrast to the surrounding by avoiding signal dispersion in amplification.The contrast-enhanced imaging with signal amplification is significant for biological analysis and molecular medicine.We expect the 1:L mechanism will provide a new thought for high-performance imaging of biomarkers in cells.

Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Cytochemistry,School of Chemistry and Food Engineering,Changsha University of Science and Technology,Changsha 410114,China;Department Ultrasound Diagnosis,The Second Xiangya Hospital,Central South University,Changsha 410011,China;Laboratory of Chemical Biology&Traditional Chinese Medicine Research,Ministry of Education,College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering,Hunan Normal University,Changsha 410081,China

[1]Jiaqi Deng;Jingyuan Xu;Minzhi Ouyang;Zhen Zou;Yanli Lei;Junbin Li;Zhihe Qing;Ronghua Yang-.Target-triggered hairpin-free chain-branching growth of DNA dendrimers for contrast-enhanced imaging in living cells by avoiding signal dispersion)[J].中国化学快报（英文版）,2022(02):773-777

HFCBA

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