Rapid signal enhancement method for nanoprobe-based biosensing

The introduction of nanomaterials as detection reagents has enabled improved sensitivity and facilitated detection in a variety of bioanalytical assays. However, high nanoprobe densities are typically needed for colorimetric detection and to circumvent this limitation several enhancement protocols have been reported. Nevertheless, there is currently a lack of universal, enzyme-free and versatile methods that can be readily applied to existing as well as new biosensing strategies. The novel method presented here is shown to enhance the signal of gold nanoparticles enabling visual detection of a spot containing <10 nanoparticles. Detection of Protein G on paper arrays was improved by a 100-fold amplification factor in under five minutes of assay time, using IgG-labelled gold, silver, silica and iron oxide nanoprobes. Furthermore, we show that the presented protocol can be applied to a commercial allergen microarray assay, ImmunoCAP ISAC sIgE 112, attaining a good agreement with fluorescent detection when analysing human clinical samples.