Pt nanoparticles functionalized with nucleic acid act as catalytic labels for the chemiluminescent detection of DNA and proteins

A study of Pt Nanoparticles (NP) functionalized with nucleic acid acting as a catalyst for the chemiluminescent detection of DNA and protein in the presence of luminol/H₂O₂ is presented. The nucleic acid modified Pt NPs are applied as a label for probing the aptamer-thrombin binding and the hybridization of target DNA with its analyzing probe. Substantial efforts have been made to the application of chemiluminescent or electrochemiluminescent reactions an optical readout signals for biorecognition processes. Nucleic acid functionalized magnetic particles coupled to quinone-modified magnetic particles were employed for the amplified generation of electrogenerated chemiluminescence upon detection of DNA. This chemiluminescent analysis of thrombin by aptamer-functionalized Pt NPs provides improved sensitivity as compared to other surface-confined methods for analyzing thrombin by molecular or NP labels.