Polyethylenimine-coated Fe ₃ O ₄ nanoparticles effectively quench fluorescent DNA, which can be developed as a novel platform for protein detection

We report a novel assembly of polyethyleneimine (PEI)-coated Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs) with single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), and the fluorescence of the dye labeled in the DNA is remarkably quenched. In the presence of a target protein, the protein-DNA aptamer mutual interaction releases the ssDNA from this assembly and hence restores the fluorescence. This feature could be adopted to develop an aptasensor for protein detection. As a proof-of-concept, for the first time, we have used this proposed sensing strategy to detect thrombin selectively and sensitively. Furthermore, simultaneous multiple detection of thrombin and lysozyme in a complex protein mixture has been proven to be possible.