Nanoplasmonic sensing of nucleic acids using fluorescent core-shell nanoparticles and a cationic fluorescent polymer

BROUARD, DANNY; LESSARD VIGER, MATHIEU; BRACAMONTE, ANGEL-GUILLERMO; BOUDREAU DENIS

ACS NANO

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Año: 2011 vol. 5 p. 1888 - 1896

1936-0851

This study describes the preparation and characterization of a DNA sensing architecture combining the molecular recognition capabilities of a cationic conjugated polymer transducer with highly fluorescent core-shell NPs. The very structure of the probe-labelled NPs and the polymer-induced formation of NP aggregates maximize the proximity between the polymer donor and acceptor NPs that is required for optimal resonant energy transfer.  Each hybridization event is signalled by a potentially large number of excited reporters following the efficient plasmon-enhanced energy transfer between target-activated polymer transducer and fluorophores located in the self-assembled core-shell aggregates, resulting in direct molecular detection of target nucleic acids at femtomolar concentrations.