title: Liquid-Crystal Biosensor Based on Nickel-Nanosphere-Induced Homeotropic Alignment for the Amplified Detection of Thrombin.
abstract: A new liquid-crystal (LC)-based sensor operated by nickel nanosphere (NiNS)-induced homeotropic alignment for the label-free monitoring of thrombin was reported. When doped with NiNSs, a uniform vertical orientation of 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB) was easily obtained. A sandwich system of aptamer/thrombin/aptamer-functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) was fabricated, and AuNPs-aptamer conjugation caused the disruption of the 5CB orientation, leading to an obvious change of the optical appearance from a dark to a bright response to thrombin concentrations from 0.1 to 100 nM. This design also allowed quantitative detection of the thrombin concentration. This distinctive and sensitive thrombin LC sensor provides a new principle for building LC-sensing systems.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Environment Science, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics , Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Dongyu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Environment Science, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics , Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Environment Science, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics , Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Lihong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Environment Science, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics , Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Environment Science, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics , Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Environment Science, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics , Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry; D054118:Nanospheres / Q000737:chemistry*; D009532:Nickel / Q000737:chemistry; D013917:Thrombin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D006046:Gold; D009532:Nickel; D013917:Thrombin
keywords: biosensor; liquid crystal; nickel nanoparticles; signal enhancement; thrombin