Application of Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework‐8 Nanoparticles for the Fluorescence‐Enhanced Detection of Nucleic Acids

Abstract

During the past years, detection of nucleic acids has attracted much interest because of their importance to basic research and to various applications, such as gene expression profiling, clinical disease diagnostics and treatment. [1] Thus, development of highly sensitive, selective, and cost-effective approaches for nucleic acid detection has become a hot topic of scientific and technological importance. [2] Recent research has shown that nanostructured materials are promising candidates for the fabrication of novel chemical and biological detection systems, thus opening the door for using nanostructures for diagnostic application in biotechnological system. [3] Indeed, numerous nanostructures have been successfully employed for the detection of nucleic acids. [3] Recently, considerable attention has been paid to nucleic acid detection by homogeneous fluorescence assays based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) or quenching mechanisms. [4] It has been established that the selectivity issue for a fluorophore–quencher pair in an assay is addressed if nanostructured materials are used as a quencher because the same nanostructure is capable of quenching dyes of different emission frequencies. [4, 5] So far, we and other researchers have demonstrated the use of several structures as a fluorescent sensing platform for DNA detection. These materials include gold nanoparticles, [4–9] silver nanoparticles, [10] single-walled carbon nanotubes, [11, 12] multi-walled