Controlling the Interaction between Fluorescent Gold Nanoclusters and Biointerfaces for Rapid Discrimination of Fungal Pathogens

y Nondestructive detection and discrimination of fungal pathogens is essential for rapid and precise treatment, which further effectively prevents antifungal resistance from overused drugs. In this work, fluorescent gold nanoclusters served as the basis for discriminating Candida species. Varied on surface ligands, these gold nanoclusters demonstrated different optical properties as a result of the perturbation effects of ligands. The biointerface interaction between the surface ligands of gold nanoclusters and the cell walls of Candida species can be constructed, and their restriction on ligands perturbation effect produced enhanced fluorescence signals. Owing to the variation of the cell wall composition, cells of different Candida species demonstrated different degrees of association with the gold nanoclusters, leading to discriminable amounts of fluorescence enhancements. The reverse signal response from these gold nanoclusters gives rise to a synergistic and effective assay that allows identification of Candida species.

Automated summary

In this work, fluorescent gold nanoclusters were used to discriminate Candida species nondestructively through the interaction between the surface ligands of gold nanoclusters and the cell walls of the species. The variation of cell wall composition leads to different degrees of association with the gold nanoclusters, enabling the identification of Candida species through fluorescence enhancement.