Reagentless Ultrasensitive Specific DNA Array Detection Based on Responsive Polymeric Biochips

Abstract

Self-assembled molecular structures immobilized on solid substrates and composed of fluorophore-tagged oligonucleotide probes and an optical polymeric transducer were investigated for the trace level detection of DNA target molecules. Rapid and efficient energy transfer between the polymeric transducer and fluorophores within the molecular aggregates leads to a massive intrinsic amplification of the fluorescence signal and to the label-free detection of as little as 300 DNA molecules, with the specificity required for the detection of single-nucleotide mismatches. This capacity for attomolar detection levels while the sensing structures are attached onto solid supports could lead to the development of biochip platforms for fast and simple PCR-free multitarget DNA detection.

Protein-assisted conjugated polymer microarray: Fabrication and sensing applications

“…(PFDPN-B). Polymerization of monomer 1 and 3 with diboronic acid ester 2 via Suzuki coupling affords precursor polymer (4) by adopting a modified literature method [18]. The gel permeation chromatography (GPC) analyses show that the weight-average molecular weight (M w ) and number-average molecular weight (M n ) of 4 are 17470 and 10810, respectively, with the polydispersity index (PDI) of 1.61.…”

“…The Leclerc group [18] extended the well-defined fluorescence chain reaction (FCR) amplification mechanism in homogeneous aqueous to microarray-based multiplex detection. Following the similar strategy, polythiophene/DNA aptamer microarray was used to identify protein targets with high sensitivity and selectivity [19].…”

Fluorescent oligo and poly-thiophenes and their utilization for recording biological events of diverse origin—when organic chemistry meets biology

“…Other non-thiophene-based luminescent conjugated polymers have been used rather extensively to study biological events [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54]. These systems utilize the excellent lightharvesting properties of conjugated polymers instead of the intrinsic conformationally induced optical properties, as the detection schemes for studying the biological events are mainly based on quenching of the emission from the polymer or fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the polymer and a second fluorophore.…”

“…For the scheme of detection to be easy to use and to be able to assay a large number DNA sequences, they created a microarray DNA chip using soft lithography, and with this, they were able to detect a single mismatch in the complementary DNA strand down to pM concentrations (Fig 3d). Recently, Leclerc and coworkers also implemented their FRET-based system [52] into a biochip platform, and they were able to go down to attomolar detection levels on a solid support, opening up for the development of LCP based multi-arrays for fast and simple PCR-free multitarget DNA detection [54].…”

Cationic Polyelectrolyte Amplified Bead Array for DNA Detection with Zeptomole Sensitivity and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Selectivity

“…[ 16 , 27 ] The application of CPEs to amplify fl uorescent signals on solid substrate has been less reported, primarily because of a lack of CPE structures that are compatible with the excitation sources and detectors for commercial scanners/imagers and are highly emissive in the solid state. [28][29][30][31] These solid state assays generally have high background signal and/or require customized instruments. [ 28 , 30 , 31 ] The current material design and detection strategy need further improvement before they could be put into real practice on protein chips and microarrays.…”