Diagnosis of Tuberculosis Using Colorimetric Gold Nanoparticles on a Paper-Based Analytical Device

Abstract

We have developed a colorimetric sensing strategy employing gold nanoparticles and a paper-based analytical platform for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). By utilizing the surface plasmon resonance effect, we were able to monitor changes in the color of a gold nanoparticle colloid based on the effects of single-stranded DNA probe molecules hybridizing with targeted double-stranded TB DNA. The hybridization event changes the surface charge density of the nanoparticles, causing them to aggregate to various degrees, which modifies the color of the solution in a manner that can be readily measured to determine the concentration of the targeted DNA analyte. In order to adapt this TB diagnosis method to resource-limited settings, we extended this label-free oligonucleotide and unmodified gold nanoparticle solution-based technique to a paper-based system that can be measured using a smartphone to obtain rapid parallel colorimetric results with low reagent consumption and without the need for sophisticated analytical equipment. In this study, we investigated various assay conditions, including the denaturing temperature and time, different oligonucleotide probe sequences, as well as the ratio of single stranded probe and double stranded target DNA. After optimizing these variables, we were able to achieve a detection limit of 1.95 × 10 ng/mL for TB DNA. Furthermore, multiple tests could be performed simultaneously with a 60 min turnaround time.

Comprehensive plasma proteomic profiling reveals biomarkers for active tuberculosis

“…For example, the plasma matrix encompasses tissue leakage proteins, thus providing systemic and organotypic insight about specific immunopathologic features, such as lung tissue destruction, relevant to active TB (6,7). Furthermore, plasma protein signatures are highly amenable for translation to rapid test devices, and this technology is rapidly evolving, including colorimetric gold nanoparticles on paper-based devices, label-free biosensors, and nanofluidic disposable chips (8,9). Extensive proteomic discovery research has been conducted in TB.…”

Paper-Based Sensors: Emerging Themes and Applications

“…Imaging software can be used to quantify the color information in which the pixel values correlate with analyte concentrations. In a research study by Tsai et al tuberculosis was diagnosed using gold nanoparticle-tagged antibodies [ 66 ]. The changes in the aggregation properties of gold nanoparticles were quantified using the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect.…”

Diagnosis of Tuberculosis: Nanodiagnostics Approaches

“…Subsequently, activity of this method was also compared with automated liquid culture system (BACTEC™ MGIT™) and semi-nested PCR, which shows greater sensitivity and specificity of the test in the detection of M. tuberculosis complex (Baptista et al 2008;Cordeiro et al 2016). Insertion sequence (IS6110) of M. tuberculosis was also used to increase the sensitivity of this test along with microfluidics technology, which utilized calorimetric detection of AuNPs coupled with IS6110 sequence (Tsai et al 2017).…”