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Updated: Jan 25, 2026

Production and Targeting of Monovalent Quantum Dots
Published on: October 23, 2014
Multifunctional Cellular Beacons with in Situ Synthesized Quantum Dots Make Pathogen Detectable with the Naked Eye
Jia-Jia Wang1, Yi Lin1, Yong-Zhong Jiang1,2
1Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Virology, The Institute for Advanced Studies, and Wuhan Institute of Biotechnology , Wuhan University , Wuhan 430072 , P. R. China.
Abstract:
The rapid and sensitive detection of pathogens is extremely crucial for timely clinical diagnosis and diseases control. Here, by employing cellular beacons with in situ synthesized QDs created from Staphylococcus aureus ( S. aureus), we efficiently fabricated an antibody (Ab) and acetylcholinesterase (AChE)-functionalized nanobioprobe, i.e., multifunctional cellular beacons (MCBs), avoiding complicated modification. Coupled with magnetic separation, a novel method for pathogen detection with the naked eye is established. With this method, enterovirus 71 (EV71) can be detected by the naked eye through the aggregation of gold nanoparticles that is triggered by the product of AChE catalyzed acetylthiocholine, with a detection limit of 0.5 ng/mL. Moreover, due to the MCBs have high luminance with perfect uniformity, the detection can also be realized by counting the number of MCBs, with a detection limit of 1 ng/mL. The method is validated with human throat swabs, resulting in a complete consistence with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction results. This study reports the first cellular beacons-based method for pathogen detection by the naked eye and broadens the applicability of cell self-synthesized nanoparticles-based immunoassays. Moreover, the MCBs-based method will provide a powerful tool for clinical detection.
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