Journal
NANO LETTERS
Volume 10, Issue 8, Pages 3106-3110Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/nl101773c
Keywords
Noble metal fluorescent nanoclusters; nucleic acid detection; separation-free probes; nanobiosensors
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Funding
- Los Alamos National Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD)
- U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences [DE-AC52-06NA25396]
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DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (DNA/Ag NCs) are an emerging set of fluorophores that are smaller than semiconductor quantum dots and can have better photostability and brightness than commonly used organic dyes. Here we find the red fluorescence of DNA/Ag NCs can be enhanced 500-fold when placed in proximity to guanine-rich DNA sequences. On the basis of this new phenomenon, we have designed a DNA detection probe (NanoCluster Beacon, NCB) that lights up upon target binding. Since NCBs do not rely on Forster energy transfer for quenching, they can easily reach high (>100) signal-to-background ratios (SIB ratios) upon target binding. Here, in a separation-free assay, we demonstrate NCB detection of an influenza target with a S/B ratio of 175, a factor of 5 better than a conventional molecular beacon probe. Since the observed fluorescence enhancement is caused by intrinsic nucleobases, our detection technique is simple, inexpensive, and compatible with commercial DNA synthesizers.
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