Institute of High Frequency and Quantum Electronics HQE, University of Siegen, 57076 Siegen, Germany.
Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91054 Erlangen, Germany.
Biosensors (Basel). 2022 Jul 1;12(7):483. doi: 10.3390/bios12070483.
Due to the occurrence of THz-excited vibrational modes in biomacromolecules, the THz frequency range has been identified as particularly suitable for developing and applying new bioanalytical methods. We present a scalable THz metamaterial-based biosensor being utilized for the multifrequency investigation of single- and double-stranded DNA (ssDNA and dsDNA) samples. It is demonstrated that the metamaterial resonance frequency shift by the DNA's presence depends on frequency. Our experiments with the scalable THz biosensors demonstrate a major change in the degree of the power function for dsDNA by 1.53 ± 0.06 and, in comparison, 0.34 ± 0.11 for ssDNA as a function of metamaterial resonance frequency. Thus, there is a significant advantage for dsDNA detection that can be used for increased sensitivity of biomolecular detection at higher frequencies. This work represents a first step for application-specific biosensors with potential advantages in sensitivity, specificity, and robustness.
由于生物大分子中存在太赫兹激发的振动模式，因此太赫兹频率范围被认为特别适合开发和应用新的生物分析方法。我们提出了一种可扩展的基于太赫兹超材料的生物传感器，用于对单链和双链 DNA（ssDNA 和 dsDNA）样品进行多频研究。实验证明，DNA 的存在会导致超材料共振频率随频率而发生位移。我们用可扩展的太赫兹生物传感器进行的实验表明，双链 DNA 的功率函数变化程度主要为 1.53±0.06，而单链 DNA 的变化程度为 0.34±0.11，这是作为超材料共振频率的函数。因此，双链 DNA 的检测具有显著优势，可用于提高更高频率下生物分子检测的灵敏度。这项工作代表了应用特定生物传感器的第一步，其在灵敏度、特异性和稳健性方面具有潜在优势。
