Detection of Toxoplasma gondii with a DNA molecular beacon probe

Abstract

Toxoplasma gondii is a kind of microscopic parasite that may infect humans, and there are increasing concerns on the early detection of latent Toxoplasma gondii infection in recent years. This research highlights a new type of molecular beacon (MB) fluorescent probe for Toxoplasma DNA testing. We combined high-efficiency fluorescent inorganic core-shell quantum dots-CdTe/ZnS (as fluorescent energy donor) and BHQ-2 (energy acceptor) to the single-strand DNA of Toxoplasma Gondii, and a molecular beacon sensing system based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) was achieved. Core-shell quantum dots CdTe/ZnS was firstly prepared in aqueous solution, and the influencing factor of its fluorescent properties, including CdTe/Na 2 S/Zn(CH 3 COO) 2 (v/v), dependence of reaction time, temperature, and pH, is investigated systematically. The synthesized quantum dots and molecular beacon were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer (UV-vis), fluorescent spectrophotometer (FS), respectively. The TEM results showed that CdTe/ZnS core-shell quantum dots is ~11nm in size, and the quantum dots is water-soluble well. The sensing ability of target DNA of assembled MB was investigated, and results showed that the target Toxoplasma Gonddi DNA can be successfully detected by measuring the change of fluorescence intensity. The results showed that the current sensing probe will be a useful and convenient tool in Toxoplasma gondii early detection.

Molecular Beacons: A Novel Optical Diagnostic Tool

“…Nowadays, high-efficiency fluorescent inorganic core-shell quantum dots-CdTe/ZnS (as fluorescent energy donor) and BHQ-2 (energy acceptor) are combined to the single-strand DNA of Toxoplasma gondii. And it turns out to be a successful tool of targeting T. gondii DNA (Zhou et al 2009).…”