Silver Nanoparticles as a Fluorescent Sensing Platform for Nucleic Acid Detection

In this study, for the first time, we report on the use of Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs) as an effective fluorescent sensing platform for nucleic acid detection. The general concept used in this approach is based on adsorption of the FAM (fluorescein)-labeled single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) probe by AgNP, which is accompanied by substantial fluorescence quenching of FAM due to their close proximity, followed by specific hybridization with its target to form a double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and revcover the fluorescene of FAM. The use of this sensing platform to differentiate complementary and mismatched sequences is also demonstrated.