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Aptamer-functionalized silver nanoclusters (Ag NCs) have been attracting a lot of interest as label-free probes which have been successfully applied to both cell imaging and molecular detection. MUC1 aptamer is an ssDNA aptamer that specifically binds to MUC1 mucin which is a large transmembrane glycoprotein whose expression level increases at least 10-fold in primary and metastatic breast cancers. Using C4A4C3-linker-MUC1 as template, the Ag NCs were synthesized through one-pot process. The fluorescence intensity of Ag NCs was found to be closely related to the length and type (poly adenine or thymine) of the linker, the optimum linker being–AAAAA–. Using the C4A4C3-A5-MUC1 as the scaffold, the synthesized Ag NCs emitted fluorescence with high quantum yield (QY) of 66.5%. Based on the specific interaction between the MUC1 aptamer and MUC1 mucin, the C4A4C3-A5-MUC1 …