Multidimensional colorimetric sensor array for discrimination of proteins

An extensible multidimensional colorimetric sensor array for the detection of protein is developed based on DNA functionalized gold nanoparticles (DNA-AuNPs) as receptors. In the presence of different proteins, the aggregation behavior of DNA-AuNPs was regulated by the high concentrations of salt and caused different color change; while DNA-AuNPs grew induced by the reduction of HAuCl4 and NH2OH as a reductant on the surface of nanoparticles exhibited different morphologies and color appearance for different proteins. The transducers based on AuNPs modified by specific and nonspecific DNA enables naked-eye discrimination of the target analytes. This extensible sensing platform with only two receptors could simultaneously discriminate ten native proteins and their thermally denatured conformations using hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) at the concentration of 50 nM with 100% accuracy. This opens up the possibility of the sensor array to investigate the different conformational changes of biomacromolecules, and it gives a new direction of developing multidimensional transduction principles based on plasmonic nanoparticle conjugates. Furthermore, the sensing system could discriminate proteins at the concentration of 500 nM in the presence of 50% human urine, which indicated this sensor array has great potential ability in analyzing real biological fluids. In addition, the multidimensional colorimetric sensor array is suitable for analysis of target analytes in the resource-restricted regions because of rapid, simple, low cost, and in-field detection with the naked eye.