A magneto-optical biochip for rapid assay based on the Cotton-Mouton effect of γ-Fe2O3@Au core/shell nanoparticles

Background: In the past decades, different diseases and viruses, such as Ebola, MERS and COVID-19, impacted the human society and caused huge cost in different fields. With the increasing threat from the new or unknown diseases, the demand of rapid and sensitive assay method is more and more urgent. Results: In this work, we developed a magneto-optical biochip based on the Cotton-Mouton effect of gamma-Fe2O3@Au core/shell magnetic nanoparticles. We performed a proof-of-concept experiment for the detection of the spike glyco-protein S of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The assay was achieved by measuring the magneto-optical Cotton-Mouton effect of the biochip. This magneto-optical biochip can not only be used to detect SARS-CoV-2 but also can be easily modified for other diseases assay. Conclusion: The assay process is simple and the whole testing time takes only 50 min including 3 min for the CM rotation measurement. The detection limit of our method for the spike glycoprotein S of SARS-CoV-2 is estimated as low as 0.27 ng/mL (3.4 pM).

Automated summary

The study introduced a novel magneto-optical biochip for rapid and sensitive disease detection, with potential for wide applications. Successfully detecting the spike glyco-protein S of SARS-CoV-2, the biochip can be easily modified for other disease assays as well.