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Protein identification is very important in the field of clinical medicine and diagnosis. Here, we report a novel and simple sensor array for the detection and identification of proteins using pH buffer solutions as sensing elements. Different proteins in various pH solutions have different net surface charges including positive, negative or no charge. Such differences may allow a pattern recognition-based sensor array for protein identification. When using negatively charged CdSe/ZnS quantum dots as an indicator, the interactions between a charged protein and quantum dots result in fluorescence changes, generating a differential response pattern for the protein. The result shows that proteins with pI ＞ 7, pI = 7 or pI ＜ 7 can be differentiated successfully. Moreover, complex protein mixtures are also able to be identified and the results demonstrate that surface charge may play an important role in protein sensing. The HSA of different concentrations in water and human urine can also be detected by using the sensor array. It is demonstrated that the proposed sensor array has potential applications in clinical diagnosis and proteomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein we report a novel strategy for the detection and identification of proteins using unmodified noble metal nanoparticles. Five gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and two silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with different sizes were utilized as sensing elements to create a colorimetric sensor array. In the presence of proteins, the UV-vis absorbance of the noble metal nanoparticles changed due to the interactions between the protein and nanoparticles, producing distinct absorbance response patterns which can be visually detected by the naked eye. The color pattern of the array is a unique “fingerprints” for each protein sample, which can be differentiated by linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Ten different proteins at concentrations of 0.5, 5 and 50 μM have be successfully discriminated. Moreover, the array was also able to discriminate different bacteria at a concentration of 0.05 OD in 200 μL, as well as cancer cells at the level of 5000 cells in 200 μL. This work demonstrates that an unmodified noble metal nanoparticle-based protein detection array has potential for applications in medical diagnostics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a fluorescent sensing strategy was developed for the detection of mercury(II) ions (Hg(2+)) in aqueous solution with excellent sensitivity and selectivity using a target-induced DNAzyme cascade with catalytic and molecular beacons (CAMB). In order to construct the biosensor, a Mg(2+)-dependent DNAzyme was elaborately designed and artificially split into two separate oligonucleotide fragments. In the presence of Hg(2+), the specific thymine-Hg(2+)-thymine (T-Hg(2+)-T) interaction induced the two fragments to produce the activated Mg(2+)-dependent DNAzyme, which would hybridize with a hairpin-structured MB substrate to form the CAMB system. Eventually, each target-induced activated DNAzyme could catalyze the cleavage of many MB substrates through true enzymatic multiple turnovers. This would significantly enhance the sensitivity of the Hg(2+) sensing system and push the detection limit down to 0.2 nM within a 20 min assay time, much lower than those of most previously reported fluorescence assays. Owning to the strong coordination of Hg(2+) to the T-T mismatched pairs, this proposed sensing system exhibited excellent selectivity for Hg(2+) detection, even in the presence of 100 times of other interferential metal ions. Furthermore, the applicability of the biosensor for Hg(2+) detection in river water samples was demonstrated with satisfactory results. These advantages endow the sensing strategy with a great potential for the simple, rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of Hg(2+) from a wide range of real samples.