title: Bio-Conjugated Gold Nanoparticle Based SERS Probe for Ultrasensitive Identification of Mosquito-Borne Viruses Using Raman Fingerprinting.
abstract: Dengue virus (DENV) and West Nile virus (WNV) are two well-documented mosquito-borne flaviviruses that cause significant health problems worldwide. Driven by this need, we have developed a bio-conjugated gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-based surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) probe for the detection of both DENV and WNV. Reported data demonstrate anti-flavivirus 4G2 antibody conjugated gold nanoparticle (GNP) SERS probe can be used as a Raman fingerprint for the ultrasensitive detection of DENV and WNV selectively. Experimental data show that due to the plasmon coupling in nano-assembly, antibody conjugated GNP- based SERS is able to detect as low as 10 plaque-forming units (PFU)/ml of DENV-2 and WNV, which is comparable with the sensitivity of quantitative PCR-based assays. Selectivity of our probe was demonstrated using another mosquito-borne chikungunya virus (CHIKV) as a negative control. Experimental data demonstrate a huge enhancement of SERS intensity is mainly due to the strong electric field enhancement, which has been confirmed by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation. Reported FDTD simulation data indicate the SERS enhancement factor can be more than 104times, due to the assembled structure. Reported results suggest that bio-conjugated AuNP-4G2 based SERS probes have great potential to be used to screen viral particles in clinical and research-based laboratories.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA.
authors.forename: Amber M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Paul
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA.
authors.forename: Sudarson S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA.
authors.forename: Yongliang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Le
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA.
authors.forename: Fengwei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA.
authors.forename: Paresh C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Ray