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Direct measurement of DNA repair is critical for the annotation of their clinical relevance and the discovery of drugs for cancer therapy. Here we reported a "repaired and activated" DNAzyme (RADzyme) by incorporating a single methyl lesion (O6MeG, 3MeC, or 1MeA) at designated positions through systematic screening. We found that the catalytic activity of the RADzyme was remarkably suppressed and could be restored via enzyme‐mediated DNA repair. Benefit from these findings, a fluorogenic RADzyme sensor was developed for the monitoring of MGMT‐mediated repair of O6MeG lesion. Importantly, the sensor allowed the evaluation of MGMT repair activity in different cells and under drugs treatment. Furthermore, another RADzyme sensor was engineered for the monitoring of ALKBH2‐mediated repair of 3MeC lesion. This strategy provides a simple and versatile tool for the study of the basic biology of DNA repair, clinical diagnosis and therapeutic assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNAzymes are a promising platform for metal ion detection, and a few DNAzyme-based sensors have been reported to detect metal ions inside cells. However, these methods required an influx of metal ions to increase their concentrations for detection. To address this major issue, the design of a catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) reaction to amplify the signal from photocaged Na+-specific DNAzyme to detect endogenous Na+ inside cells is reported. Upon light activation and in the presence of Na+, the NaA43 DNAzyme cleaves its substrate strand and releases a product strand, which becomes an initiator that trigger the subsequent CHA amplification reaction. This strategy allows detection of endogenous Na+ inside cells, which has been demonstrated by both fluorescent imaging of individual cells and flow cytometry of the whole cell population. This method can be generally applied to detect other endogenous metal ions and thus contribute to deeper understanding of the role of metal ions in biological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNAzymes have enjoyed success as metal ion sensors outside cells. Their susceptibility to metal-dependent cleavage during delivery into cells has limited their intracellular applications. To overcome this limitation, a near-infrared (NIR) photothermal activation method is presented for controlling DNAzyme activity in living cells. The system consists of a three-stranded DNAzyme precursor (TSDP), the hybridization of which prevents the DNAzyme from being active. After conjugating the TSDP onto gold nanoshells and upon NIR illumination, the increased temperature dehybridizes the TSDP to release the active DNAzyme, which then carries out metal-ion-dependent cleavage, resulting in releasing the cleaved product containing a fluorophore. Using this construct, detecting Zn2+ in living HeLa cells is demonstrated. This method has expanded the DNAzyme versatility for detecting metal ions in biological systems under NIR light that exhibits lower phototoxicity and higher tissue penetration ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]