Abstract
A simple, fast, inexpensive sensitive/selective nucleic acid sensor based on the quartz crystal microbalance system (QCM) was developed for the detection of telomerase. A specially designed oligonucleotide probe, that is complementary to the template region of the telomerase enzyme, was immobilized onto the silver electrodes of piezoelectric crystals with polyethyleneimine adhesion cross-linked with glutaraldehyde. Optimum coating and immobilization conditions were determined. The QCM nucleic acid sensor was used for the detection of telomerase enzyme in human cervix carcinoma cell (HeLa) lysates. A significant difference between the telomerase negative cells (BHK) from HeLa cells, which was used for qualitative and quantitative detection of telomerase. An almost a linear correlation with the protein concentration was obtained with a R 2 value of 0.9621. The linear correlation coefficients (R2) for HeLa and BHK cell lysate obtained by applying Langmuir adsorption model, were 0.9630 and 0.9766, respectively. Telomerase activity was confirmed by stretch-PCR and fluorometric (F)-TRAP within HeLa extracts. The results obtained both with the QCM system developed in this study and F-TRAP method applied is significantly correlated (r = 0.968, p<0.001).
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