title: Quartz crystal microbalance genosensor for sequence specific detection of attomolar DNA targets.
abstract: A mass sensitive quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) based genosensor has been developed using breast cancer 1 (BRCA1) gene as a model gene. We modified the traditional sandwich assay by conjugating reporter probe DNA (DNA-r) with an assembly of gold nanoparticles leading to an increased mass on the surface, which enhanced the sensitivity to few orders of magnitude. The unique cleavage function of endonuclease is used for achieving the selectivity to complementary DNA over mismatched DNA. With this combination, the sensor exhibited excellent sensitivity with a detection limit of 10 aM BRCA1 gene and it showed good selectivity for even single base mismatch DNA targets. This ultrasensitive and cost-effective DNA detection protocol can be extended to the direct analysis of any non-amplified genomic DNA.
authors.affiliation: Nanoscience Research Laboratory, School of Nano Science and Technology, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Calicut, Kerala, India.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Abdul Rasheed
authors.affiliation: Nanoscience Research Laboratory, School of Nano Science and Technology, National Institute of Technology Calicut, Calicut, Kerala, India. Electronic address: sandhya@nitc.ac.in.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sandhyarani
mesh_terms: D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis*; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D058525:Quartz Crystal Microbalance Techniques
chemical_list: D004247:DNA
keywords: Attomolar detection; Breast cancer 1 gene; Genosensor; Gold nanocluster; Quartz crystal microbalance