title: Targeted Enlargement of Aptamer Functionalized Gold Nanoparticles for Quantitative Protein Analysis.
abstract: The ability to selectively amplify the detection signals for targets over interferences is crucial when analyzing proteins in a complicated sample matrix. Here, we describe a targeted enlargement strategy that can amplify the light-scattering signal from aptamer-functionalized gold nanoparticles (Apt-AuNP) with high specificity for quantitative protein analysis. This strategy is achieved by labeling target proteins with competitively protected Apt-AuNP probes and enlarging the probes with gold enhancement. This competitive protection strategy could effectively eliminate nonspecific protein adsorptions from a sample matrix, leading to a highly specific labeling of the target protein. As a result, the subsequent amplification of the light-scattering signal by gold enhancement only occurs in the presence of the target protein. This strategy was successfully demonstrated by analyzing human α-thrombin in human serum samples in a Western blot format.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2G3, Canada. fli@brocku.ca.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2G3, Canada. qingchao0124@163.com.
authors.forename: Jingjing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2G3, Canada. yanan3@ualberta.ca.
authors.forename: Yanan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2G3, Canada. chuan2@ualberta.ca.
authors.forename: Chuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2G3, Canada. xingfang@ualberta.ca.
authors.forename: Xing-Fang
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2G3, Canada. xc.le@ualberta.ca.
authors.forename: X Chris
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Le
keywords: Western blot; aptamer; gold enlargement; protein quantification