A Fluorescence-Quenching Platform based on Biomineralized Hydroxyapatite from Natural Seashell and Applied to Cancer Cell Detection

As a typical biomineral, hydroxyapatite (HAp) is widely applied in bone implants and other related fields. However, the inherent nature of HAp can potentially be altered through restricting its fabrication conditions. Here, HAp fabricated by a hydrothermal treatment of pieces of natural seashell is demonstrated to have the capability of fluorescence quenching. To the best of the author's knowledge, this is the first time that this new property of HAp has been reported. Consequently, we assembled a fluorescence-quenching platform based on the biomineralized HAp substrate following a hydrothermal treatment and associated with a DNA molecular beacon and applied to cancer cell detection by the transformation from "OFF state" (fluorescence quenching) to "ON state" (fluorescence recovery). Herein, we found that the outer surface of HAp material after hydrothermal biomineralization for 5 days has considerable capability for both fluorescence quenching and recovery. These results may also have implications in the further detection of various targets such as cancer cells with other special surface antigens, significant biological small molecules or disease related microRNA, just by changing the sequence of the nucleic acid beacon according to the corresponding aptamer.