title: Calcium carbonate-gold nanocluster hybrid spheres: synthesis and versatile application in immunoassays.
abstract: Fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) were incorporated into porous calcium carbonate spheres through electrostatic interaction. The resulting CaCO(3)/AuNCs hybrid material exhibited interesting properties, such as porous structure, excellent biocompatibility, good water solubility, and degradability. These properties make the CaCO(3)/AuNCs hybrid material a promising template to assemble horseradish peroxidase/antibody conjugates (HRP-Ab(2)). By using CaCO(3)/AuNCs/HRP-Ab(2) bioconjugates as probes, a versatile immunosensor was developed for fluorescent and electrochemical detection of the cancer biomarker neuron-specific enolase (NSE). The detection limits of the sensor were 2.0 and 0.1 pg mL(-1) for fluorescent and electrochemical detection, respectively. The immunosensor shows high sensitivity and offers an alternative strategy for the detection of other proteins and DNA.
authors.affiliation: State Key Lab of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093 P. R. China.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Li-Na
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Kui
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xing-Hua
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Li-Ping
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Jun-Jie
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002119:Calcium Carbonate / Q000737:chemistry*; D004563:Electrochemistry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D007118:Immunoassay; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006046:Gold; D002119:Calcium Carbonate