Recent advance in nucleic acid amplification-integrated methods for DNA methyltransferase assay

Abstract

DNA methyltransferases (MTases) can establish various epigenetic modification patterns through catalyzing methylation of adenine/cytosine DNA bases. Deregulation of DNA MTases activity may lead to aberrant DNA methylation patterns and eventually induces different diseases. DNA MTases have become valuable targets for drug screening and disease therapy, and efficient detection of DNA MTase activity is critical to epigenetic researches and clinical diagnostics. Recently, various nucleic acid amplification strategies have been exploited for sensitively sensing low-abundance DNA MTase. Herein, we review the advance in the development of nucleic acid amplification-integrated methods for DNA methyltransferase assay. Nucleic acid amplification can be achieved by using protein enzymes (e.g., DNA/RNA polymerases and DNA/RNA nucleases), enzyme-free strategies (e.g., DNAzyme, entropy-driven amplification, hybridization chain reaction, and catalytic hairpin assembly), and their combinations. This review focuses on the principles, features, and applications of nucleic acid amplification-integrated methods, and highlight the challenges and future direction in the field as well.