A novel biosensor based on a bio-barcode for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB), the second (after COVID-19) deadliest infectious killer, is a chronic infectious disease caused by infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.T.), where early diagnosis and management are the key to containing the condition. Here, we report a novel biosensor for the detection of M.T. DNA based on magnetic separation, urease catalysis and silicon nanowire field effect transistor (SiNW FET) detection. M.T. DNA is sequence-specifically captured by magnetic nanoparticles and urease-labelled silica nanoparticles simultaneously to form a sandwich complex and urea is catalyzed into ammonium carbonate by urease modified on a sandwich complex. By using SiNW FET, the detection of M.T. DNA is realized indirectly by the detection of ammonium carbonate. The limit of detection (LOD) was determined to be 78.541 fM. The specificity of the biosensor was confirmed by detecting a panel of bacterial species. The utility of the biosensor was demonstrated in real-sample analysis and the recovery study of M.T. DNA was done in the genomic DNA extracted from cultured Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The biosensor holds promise to become a rapid, sensitive and accurate method for clinical diagnosis.