Fatemeh Molaabasi - Department Of Chemistry, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
Mojtaba Shamsipur - Department Of Chemistry, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Saman Hosseinkhani - Department Of Biochemistry, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Anticancer drugs mainly kill tumor cells via inducing intrinsic apoptosis. This process primarily isinitiated by release of Cytochrome c (Cyt c) from mitochondrial into the cytosol and thereuponapoptosome formation. Therefore, the release of Cyt c is perceived as a robust signal for detection ofearly stage apoptosis and evaluation of anti-cancer agents. Cyt c is typically recognized by Westernblot and ELISA, which are semi-quantitative, time-consuming and tedious methods. Fluorescentmetal nanoclusters (NCs), have received highly attention in the past few years owing to their greatpromise for highly sensitive detections. Here, we have designed and fabricated a novel biosensorbased on aptamer-stabilized nanoclusters for rapid and inexpensive evaluation of anticancer drugs.Oligonucleotide sequences were chemically synthesized and used for growth of fluorescentDNA/AgNCs Quantitative analysis of release of Cyt c from mitochondria was performed by additionof drug treated cells to DNA/AgNCs After for 20 min incubation, the fluorescence intensities weremeasured by Spectrofluorometer under excitation wavelength of 560 nm. The aptamer-stabilizedAg NCs could be used for qualitative and quantitative determination of label-free Cyt c with thelinear range from 0 to 1 μM and a detection limit of 15 nM. In this study, we have developed anaptamer-based fluorescent probe screen anti-cancer drugs. The resulting data suggest that thedesigned sensing platform can be used for monitoring of Cyt c in the apoptotic cells after theexposure to an anti-cancer drug (e.g. doxorubicin).