Artificial Sandwich Base for Monitoring Single-Nucleobase Changes and Charge-Transfer Rates in DNA

Developing a convenient method to discriminate among different types of DNA nucleotides within a target sequence of the human genome is extremely challenging. We herein report an artificial ferrocene-base (Fe-base) that was synthesized and incorporated into different loci of a DNA strand. The Fe-base replacement on a nucleobasecan interact with DNA bases and efficiently discriminate among A, T, G, and C DNAbases of the complementary locus on the basis of interacting electrochemical properties. Furthermore, cyclic- voltammetry(CV) studies demonstrated the electrochemical stability of DNA strands incorporated with Fe-bases and the reversibility of the incorporation. Square-wave voltammetry(SWV) was performed to measure current changes between Fe-bases and bases of interest in the DNA duplex. The changes in the charge-transfer rates appeared to be correlated with the position of the Fe-base in the DNA strand, allowing rapid and efficient sensing of single- nucleobasechanges in DNA and showing promise for ...