Unimolecular, Soluble Semiconductor Nanoparticle-Based Biosensors for Thrombin Using Charge/Electron Transfer

Duplex DNA was attached to semiconductor nanoparticles providing selective detection of thrombin. Using the method reported here, semiconductor nanoparticles can have selective sensory functions for a host of additional analytes in the future. The system uses one DNA strand that selectively binds an analyte (thrombin), while the complementary DNA strand contains a redox-active metal complex. The accessibility of the metal complex to the nanoparticle surface is increased upon thrombin binding due to unravelling of the duplex DNA secondary structure. Increased interactions between the metal complex and the nanoparticle surface will decrease nanoparticle emission intensity, through charge transfer. Initially, water-soluble nanoparticles with carboxylate-terminated monolayers showed thrombin-specific responses in emission intensity (-30% for 1: 1 nanoparticle to DNA, +50% for 1:5). Despite the selective responses, the thrombin binding isotherms indicated multiple binding equilibria and more than likely nanoparticle aggregation. The need for a nonaggregative system comes from the potential employment of these sensors in live cell or living system fluorescence assays. By changing the nanoparticle capping ligand to provide an ethylene glycol-terminated monolayer, the binding isotherms fit a two-state binding model with a thrombin dissociation constant of 3 nM in a physiologically relevant buffer. This article demonstrates the need to consider capping ligand effects in designing biosensors based on semiconductor nanoparticles and demonstrates an initial DNA-attached semiconductor nanoparticle system that uses DNA-analyte binding interactions (aptamers).