Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chao and Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
Chem Soc Rev. 2014 May 21;43(10):3324-41. doi: 10.1039/c3cs60439j. Epub 2014 Mar 18.
Rolling circle amplification (RCA) is an isothermal enzymatic process where a short DNA or RNA primer is amplified to form a long single stranded DNA or RNA using a circular DNA template and special DNA or RNA polymerases. The RCA product is a concatemer containing tens to hundreds of tandem repeats that are complementary to the circular template. The power, simplicity, and versatility of the DNA amplification technique have made it an attractive tool for biomedical research and nanobiotechnology. Traditionally, RCA has been used to develop sensitive diagnostic methods for a variety of targets including nucleic acids (DNA, RNA), small molecules, proteins, and cells. RCA has also attracted significant attention in the field of nanotechnology and nanobiotechnology. The RCA-produced long, single-stranded DNA with repeating units has been used as template for the periodic assembly of nanospecies. Moreover, since RCA products can be tailor-designed by manipulating the circular template, RCA has been employed to generate complex DNA nanostructures such as DNA origami, nanotubes, nanoribbons and DNA based metamaterials. These functional RCA based nanotechnologies have been utilized for biodetection, drug delivery, designing bioelectronic circuits and bioseparation. In this review, we introduce the fundamental engineering principles used to design RCA nanotechnologies, discuss recently developed RCA-based diagnostics and bioanalytical tools, and summarize the use of RCA to construct multivalent molecular scaffolds and nanostructures for applications in biology, diagnostics and therapeutics.
滚环扩增（RCA）是一种等温酶促过程，其中短的 DNA 或 RNA 引物通过使用环形 DNA 模板和特殊的 DNA 或 RNA 聚合酶扩增以形成长的单链 DNA 或 RNA。RCA 产物是一种包含数十到数百个串联重复序列的连接物，与环形模板互补。DNA 扩增技术的强大、简单和多功能性使其成为生物医学研究和纳米生物技术的有吸引力的工具。传统上，RCA 已被用于开发针对各种靶标的敏感诊断方法，包括核酸（DNA、RNA）、小分子、蛋白质和细胞。RCA 在纳米技术和纳米生物技术领域也引起了广泛关注。具有重复单元的 RCA 产生的长单链 DNA 已被用作纳米物种周期性组装的模板。此外，由于可以通过操纵环形模板来定制 RCA 产物，因此 RCA 已被用于生成复杂的 DNA 纳米结构，例如 DNA 折纸、纳米管、纳米带和基于 DNA 的超材料。这些基于 RCA 的功能性纳米技术已被用于生物检测、药物输送、设计生物电子电路和生物分离。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了用于设计 RCA 纳米技术的基本工程原理，讨论了最近开发的基于 RCA 的诊断和生物分析工具，并总结了 RCA 在构建用于生物学、诊断和治疗的多价分子支架和纳米结构中的应用。
