A Graphene Nanoprobe for Rapid, Sensitive, and Multicolor Fluorescent DNA Analysis

TLDR

Coupling nanomaterials with biomolecular recognition events is a new direction in nanotechnology for developing novel molecular diagnostic tools. The study reports a graphene oxide–based multicolor fluorescent DNA nanoprobe for rapid, sensitive, and selective detection of DNA targets in homogeneous solution. The probe operates by exploiting interactions between graphene oxide and DNA molecules, enabling rapid, sensitive, and selective detection. The GO-based probe achieves a high signal‑to‑background ratio due to exceptional quenching, supports simultaneous multicolor detection of multiple DNA targets, and can be extended to various analytes using functional DNA structures.

Abstract

Abstract Coupling nanomaterials with biomolecular recognition events represents a new direction in nanotechnology toward the development of novel molecular diagnostic tools. Here a graphene oxide (GO)‐based multicolor fluorescent DNA nanoprobe that allows rapid, sensitive, and selective detection of DNA targets in homogeneous solution by exploiting interactions between GO and DNA molecules is reported. Because of the extraordinarily high quenching efficiency of GO, the fluorescent ssDNA probe exhibits minimal background fluorescence, while strong emission is observed when it forms a double helix with the specific targets, leading to a high signal‐to‐background ratio. Importantly, the large planar surface of GO allows simultaneous quenching of multiple DNA probes labeled with different dyes, leading to a multicolor sensor for the detection of multiple DNA targets in the same solution. It is also demonstrated that this GO‐based sensing platform is suitable for the detection of a range of analytes when complemented with the use of functional DNA structures.