Detection of DNA utilizing a fluorescent reversible change of a biosensor based on the electron transfer from quantum dots to polymyxin B sulfate

Abstract

A fluorescent “turn off–on” pattern for the detection of herring sperm DNA (hsDNA) had been designed through utilizing the interaction between polymyxin B sulfate (PMBS) and hsDNA as an inherent performance and the fluorescent transformation of glutathione (GSH)-capped CdTe quantum dots (QDs) as an external manifestation. Due to the occurrence of the photoinduced electron transfer from the QDs to PMBS, the fluorescence of GSH-capped CdTe QDs could be effectively quenched by PMBS, causing the system into “off” state. With the addition of hsDNA, the quenched fluorescence of GSH-capped CdTe QDs could be restored for the reason that PMBS embedded into hsDNA double helix structure to form new complex and peeled off from the surface of GSH-capped CdTe QDs, leading the system into “on” condition. Corresponding experimental results illustrated that the relative recovered fluorescence intensity of GSH-capped CdTe QDs–PMBS system was near proportional to the concentration of hsDNA within the range of 0.059–15.0μgmL−1. This proposed method demonstrated a good linear correlation coefficient of 0.9937 and a detection limit (3 σ/K) of 0.018μgmL−1 for hsDNA. This dual-directional fluorescent biosensor overcame the selectivity problem commonly existed in the traditional mono-directional fluorescence detection mode and owned perfect analysis applications in biochemical DNA monitoring.