Department of Bionano Technology, Graduate School, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, South Korea.
Center for Biomaterials, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul 136-791, South Korea.
J Hazard Mater. 2015 Nov 15;298:188-94. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2015.05.041. Epub 2015 Jun 5.
Francisella tularensis is a human zoonotic pathogen and the causative agent of tularemia, a severe infectious disease. Given the extreme infectivity of F. tularensis and its potential to be used as a biological warfare agent, a fast and sensitive detection method is highly desirable. Herein, we construct a novel detection platform composed of two units: (1) Magnetic beads conjugated with multiple capturing antibodies against F. tularensis for its simple and rapid separation and (2) Genetically-engineered apoferritin protein constructs conjugated with multiple quantum dots and a detection antibody against F. tularensis for the amplification of signal. We demonstrate a 10-fold increase in the sensitivity relative to traditional lateral flow devices that utilize enzyme-based detection methods. We ultimately envision the use of our novel nanoprobe detection platform in future applications that require the highly-sensitive on-site detection of high-risk pathogens.
土拉弗朗西斯菌是一种人类动物传染病病原体，也是土拉菌病的病原体，这是一种严重的传染病。鉴于土拉弗朗西斯菌的极高传染性及其可能被用作生物战剂，因此非常需要一种快速而灵敏的检测方法。在这里，我们构建了一个由两个单元组成的新型检测平台：（1）与针对土拉弗朗西斯菌的多种捕获抗体偶联的磁性珠，用于简单快速的分离；（2）与多个量子点和针对土拉弗朗西斯菌的检测抗体偶联的基因工程脱铁铁蛋白蛋白构建体，用于信号放大。与利用酶基检测方法的传统侧向流动设备相比，我们证明了灵敏度提高了 10 倍。我们最终设想在未来需要对高危病原体进行现场高灵敏度检测的应用中使用我们的新型纳米探针检测平台。
