title: Development of sandwich-form biosensor to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in clinical sputum specimens.
abstract: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causing agent of tuberculosis, comes second only after HIV on the list of infectious agents slaughtering many worldwide. Due to the limitations behind the conventional detection methods, it is therefore critical to develop new sensitive sensing systems capable of quick detection of the infectious agent. In the present study, the surface modified cadmium-telluride quantum dots and gold nanoparticles conjunct with two specific oligonucleotides against early secretory antigenic target 6 were used to develop a sandwich-form fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based biosensor to detect M. tuberculosis complex and differentiate M. tuberculosis and M. bovis Bacille Calmette-Guerin simultaneously. The sensitivity and specificity of the newly developed biosensor were 94.2% and 86.6%, respectively, while the sensitivity and specificity of polymerase chain reaction and nested polymerase chain reaction were considerably lower, 74.2%, 73.3% and 82.8%, 80%, respectively. The detection limits of the sandwich-form fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based biosensor were far lower (10 fg) than those of the polymerase chain reaction and nested polymerase chain reaction (100 fg). Although the cost of the developed nanobiosensor was slightly higher than those of the polymerase chain reaction-based techniques, its unique advantages in terms of turnaround time, higher sensitivity and specificity, as well as a 10-fold lower detection limit would clearly recommend this test as a more appropriate and cost-effective tool for large scale operations.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Advanced Technology (ITMA), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Taha Roodbar
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Shojaei
authors.affiliation: Institute of Advanced Technology (ITMA), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: asalleh@upm.edu.my.
authors.forename: Mohamad Amran
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Mohd Salleh
authors.affiliation: Nanosystems Research Team (NRTeam), Microbial Biotechnology and Biosafety Department, Agricultural Biotechnology Research Institute of Iran (ABRII), Karaj, Iran.
authors.forename: Meisam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tabatabaei
authors.affiliation: Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ekrami
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Breeding and Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Shahrekord University, P.O. Box 115, Shahrekord, Iran.
authors.forename: Roya
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Motallebi
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Department, Nanozino, 16536-43181 Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Tavoos
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rahmani-Cherati
authors.affiliation: Institute of Advanced Technology (ITMA), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Abdollah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hajalilou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Advanced Technology (ITMA), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Raheleh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jorfi
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D006046:Gold; D006801:Humans; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles; D009163:Mycobacterium bovis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013183:Sputum / Q000382:microbiology*; D013691:Tellurium; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis*
chemical_list: D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D006046:Gold; D013691:Tellurium; C028337:cadmium telluride
keywords: Cadmium-telluride quantum dots (CdTe-QDs); Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET); Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs); Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC); Sandwich-form FRET-based biosensor