Fabrication of dynamic tetrahedral DNA structure probe for precision imaging and surgical navigation of oral and maxillofacial tumors

Oral and maxillofacial tumors severely impair patients’ facial morphology and physiological functions, while conventional imaging methods suffer from low sensitivity, limited resolution and imaging artifacts, failing to support precise clinical diagnosis and accurate surgical navigation. To address these issues, this study innovatively combines tetrahedral DNA nanostructures (TDNs) with FISH technology to fabricate a dynamic DNA nanoprobe. With nucleolin and microRNA-21 as dual targets, the study systematically validates the probe’s detection performance in vitro and in vivo using tumor-bearing animal models, and verifies its efficacy in fluorescence-guided tumor resection. The results showed that rapid and prominent fluorescent signals were detected at axillary and sublingual tumor sites after local infiltration or intravenous injection of the TDN probe. Moreover, TDN-probe-assisted fluorescence-guided surgery realized tumor resection, and the treated animals achieved favorable postoperative recovery, with no distant tumor metastasis or significant organ damage. This optimized TDN-based nanoprobe enables tumor imaging and surgical navigation, offering a promising technical reference for the clinical diagnosis and targeted treatment of oral and maxillofacial tumors.