The emergence of drug-resistant bacteria severely challenges the antimicrobial agents and antibacterial strategy. Here, we demonstrate a novel, simple, and highly efficient combination therapy strategy by direct combinations of cationic conjugated polymers (CCPs) with polypeptide antibiotics against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria based on a synergistic antibacterial effect. The combination therapy method enhances the antibacterial efficacy with a significantly reduced antibiotic dosage. Also, the highly efficient and synergistic killing of drug-resistant bacteria is realized. Using combinations of CCPs and antibiotics to show increased antibacterial activity, this strategy will provide a much wider scope of the discovery of efficient antibacterial systems than that of antibiotic–antibiotic combinations. The proposed combination therapy method provides a universal and powerful platform for the treatment of pathogens, in particular, the drug-resistant bacteria, and also opens a new way for the development of efficient antibacterial systems.Keywords: antibiotic; bacterial drug resistance; Cationic conjugated polymer; combination therapy; synergistic antimicrobial;

A simple, visual, and specific method for simultaneous detection of multiplex microRNAs (miRNAs) has been developed by integrating duplex-specific nuclease (DSN)-induced amplification with cationic conjugated polymer (CCP) materials. The probe DNA with a complementary sequence to target miRNA is labeled with fluorescein dye (FAM). Without target miRNA, the single-strand DNA probe cannot be digested by DSN. Upon adding CCPs, efficient fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) from CCP to FAM occurs owing to strong electrostatic interactions between CCP and the DNA probe. In the presence of target miRNA, the DNA probe hybridizes with target miRNA followed by digestion to small nucleotide fragments by DSN; meanwhile, the miRNA is released and subsequently interacts again with the probe, resulting in the cycled digestion of the DNA probe. In this case, weak electrostatic interactions between oligonucleotide fragments and CCP lead to inefficient FRET from CCP to FAM. Thus, by triggering the FRET signal from CCP to FAM, miRNA can be specially detected, and the fluorescence color change based on FRET can be visualized directly with the naked eye under an UV lamp. Furthermore, an energy transfer cascade can be designed using CCP and DNA probes labeled at the 5′-terminus with FAM and Cy3 dyes, and the multistep FRET processes offer the ability of simultaneous detection of multiplex miRNAs.Keywords: cationic conjugated polymer; FRET; microRNA; multiplex detection; visual detection

Chromophore-assisted light inactivation (CALI) is a powerful tool for analyzing protein functions due to the high degree of spatial and temporal resolution. In this work, we demonstrate a CALI approach based on conjugated polymers (CPs)/DNA hybrid material for protein inactivation. The target protein is conjugated with single-stranded DNA in advance. Single-stranded DNA can form CPs/DNA hybrid material with cationic CPs via electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. Through the formation of CPs/DNA hybrid material, the target protein that is conjugated with DNA is brought into close proximity to CPs. Under irradiation, CPs harvest light and generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), resulting in the inactivation of the adjacent target protein. This approach can efficiently inactivate any target protein which is conjugated with DNA and has good specificity and universality, providing a new strategy for studies of protein function and adjustment of protein activity.Keywords: conjugate; conjugated polymers; DNA; hybrid materials; protein inactivation

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene activity, promoting or inhibiting cell proliferation, migration and apoptosis. Abnormal expression of miRNAs is associated with many diseases. Therefore, it is essential to establish a simple, rapid and sensitive miRNA detection method. In this paper, based on a simple molecular beacon (MB) and duplex-specific nuclease (DSN), we developed a target recycling amplification method for miRNA detection. By controlling the number of stem bases to 5, the MB probe used in this method can be prevented from hydrolysis by DSN without special modification. This assay is direct and simple to quantitatively detect miRNA with high sensitivity and specificity. The MB probe design provides a new strategy for nuclease-based amplification reaction.

A simple and homogeneous microRNA assay is developed by integration of ligase chain reaction (LCR) and lambda exonuclease-assisted cationic conjugated polymer (CCP) biosensing. LCR is utilized for exponential amplification of microRNA, and lambda exonuclease is introduced to degrade excess fluorescein-labeled probes in LCR for eliminating background signal. After addition of CCP, efficient fluorescence resonance energy transfer from CCP to fluorescein in LCR products occurs. The method is sensitive enough to detect 0.1 fM target microRNA and specific to discriminate one-base difference of microRNAs, which paves a new way for homogeneous microRNA detection and molecular diagnosis.Keywords: cationic conjugated polymer; homogeneous detection; lambda exonuclease; ligase chain reaction; microRNA;

A novel, homogeneous and sensitive assay for the detection of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) by integration of rolling circle amplification (RCA) and cationic conjugated polymer (CCP) has been developed and tested. Mutant DNA serves as the template for specifically circularizing a padlock probe (PLP) with a sequence that is complementary to the mutant DNA. Afterwards, the mutant DNA directly acts as the primer to initiate the RCA reaction in the presence of phi29 DNA polymerase that generates a long, tandem single-strand DNA product. During the RCA reaction, fluorescein-labeled dUTPs are incorporated into the RCA products. When the CCP is introduced, efficient FRET from CCP to fluorescein occurs as a result of the strong electrostatic interactions between the CCP and the DNA produced by RCA. The wild-type DNA contains a single base mismatch with PLP with the result that the PLP is not circularized, RCA is not triggered and inefficient FRET results. By measuring the change of the emission intensities of CCP and fluorescein, it was possible to detect the SNP in a homogeneous manner. The method is sensitive and specific enough to detect 0.1 pmol/L mutant DNA and to determine a mutant allele frequency as low as 2.0%.