Highly selective and sensitive nucleic acid detection based on polysaccharide-functionalized silver nanoparticles

• The Oc-AgNPs can be used as a novel sensing platform for nucleic acid detection.
• This sensing system can well differentiate complementary and mismatch sequences.
• The proposed sensing platform can be developed for practical applications.

Polysaccharide-functionalized silver nanoparticles (Oc-AgNPs) with a mean diameter of 15 nm were utilized as a novel and effective fluorescence-sensing platform for nucleic acid detection. Tests on the oligonucleotide sequences associated with the human immunodeficiency virus as a model system showed that the Oc-AgNPs effectively absorbed and quenched dye-labeled single-stranded DNA through strong hydrogen bonding interactions and slight electrostatic attractive interactions. The proposed system efficiently differentiated between complementary and mismatched nucleic acid sequences with high selectivity and good reproducibility at room temperature.

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