Universal optical assays based on multi-component nanoprobes for genomic deoxyribonucleic acid and proteins

In this report, we developed a universal assay method for both genomic DNA and proteins by using enzyme-based multi-component optical nanoprobes. The nanoprobes are gold nanoparticles assembled with bio-recognizing and signaling elements. We firstly demonstrated that the nanoprobes could detect unpurified asymmetric polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product from genomic DNA of Escherichia coli, with the sensitivity approximately 10 times higher than that of quantitative real-time PCR assay. The limit of detection (LOD) of our nanoprobe-based method is less than 10 pg template DNA (target DNA). Using DNA aptamers as recognition elements, we also showed that as few as 0.1 nM thrombin could be colorimetrically detected with high specificity. These results indicated that the enzyme-based multi-component nanoprobes have the capability to work with real biological samples, and have the potential in various biological and clinical applications.