A facile method for the detection of DNA by using gold nanoparticle probes coupled with dynamic light scattering

In this paper, we present a simple and rapid method for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) detection using gold nanoparticle probes coupled with dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis. The redox agent 1,4-dithio-dl-threitol cross-links the gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to form clusters, while the monothiol DNA could terminate the formation and stabilize the assembled clusters by their negatively charge-based repulsions. By varying the concentration of DNA, the different sizes of DNA-AuNP clusters can be obtained. The sizes of the DNA-AuNP clusters were determined by DLS. A linear correlation was obtained between the sizes and the logarithm of DNA concentration from 2 nM to 5 μM with a detection limit of 1 nM (S/N = 3).