An aqueous platinum nanotube based fluorescent immuno-assay for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus detection

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) has been a significant pathogen towards global swine industry upon its emergence in the late 1980s and since then has exemplified a rapidly evolving, widely spreading pathogen. It is urgently important to develop a simple, rapid and cost effective method to detect this pathogen when virus outbreaks. In the present work, it was found that virus antibody modified platinum nanotubes (Pt-Ab) could act as a superquencher to CdTe:Zn2+ quantum dots (CdTe:Zn2+ QDs) fluorescence by Stern-Volmer constants nearly 109 M−1 without any aggregation, the CdTe:Zn2+ QDs fluorescence will recover as the Pt-Ab goes away by antibody and antigen interaction when virus was added into the probe solution, releasing CdTe:Zn2+ QDs from the surface of Pt-Ab. By the recovery fluorescence intensity, it can realize qualitative and quantitative detection of PRRSV. This method gives a fast response to PRRSV concentration and provides a sensitive detection limit (2.4 ng/mL). Moreover, it can be applied in infected porcine serum samples and obtain satisfied results.