DNA biosensors based on water-soluble conjugated polymers.
Conjugated polymers (CPs) with large, delocalised molecular structures exhibit unique optical and electrochemical characteristics that can be used as excellent sensing elements. Recently, research on chemical and biological sensors that use water-soluble CPs as transducers has generated intense interest. Two main sensing mechanisms are used for the detection of DNA-related events, such as hybridisation, mismatch, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), SNP genotyping, conformational changes, and cleavage of the nucleic acids. One mechanism takes advantage of the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between CPs and a chromophore label on the nucleic acid probes in which a series of cationic polyfluorene, polythiophene and polyarylene derivatives are frequently used. The other mechanism relies on the conformational effects of CPs, which is induced by combination of the specific targets in which cationic polythiophene derivatives are often used. The electron transfer property of CPs are always used to design high sensitive electrochemical DNA biosensors. Here we review recent progress in the development of optical and electrochemical DNA biosensors based on water-soluble CPs.
Liu
Xingfen
X
Institute of Advanced Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Organic Electronics & Information Displays, and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, 9 Wenyuan Road, Nanjing 210046, China.
Fan
Quli
Q
Huang
Wei
W
D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003217:Conductometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012995:Solubility; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
D011108:Polymers; D014867:Water; D004247:DNA