Detection of Neisseria meningitidis using surface plasmon resonance based DNA biosensor

Herein, we report the development of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based biosensor for the detection of Neisseria meningitidis DNA employing Kretschmann configuration. Highly c-axis oriented ZnO thin film of thickness 200 nm was deposited on gold coated glass prisms by RF sputtering technique. Single stranded probe DNA was immobilized on the surface of ZnO thin film by physical adsorption method. SPR reflectance curves were recorded as a function of incident angle of He-Ne laser beam using a laboratory assembled SPR setup. The prepared biosensor exhibits a linear response towards target meningitidis DNA over the concentration range from 10 to 180 ng/μl with a high sensitivity of about 0.03°/(ng/μl) and a low limit of detection of 5 ng/μl. The SPR biosensor demonstrated high specificity and long shelf life thus, pointing towards a promising application in the field of meningitidis diagnosis.