Plasmonic nanoplatform for point-of-care testing trace HCV core protein

Early diagnosis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is still urgently desired as there is a global healthy burden and no vaccine available. In this work, a plasmonic nanoplatform was engineered with catalytic hairpin assembly (CHA) amplification reaction specifically of HCV core protein (HCVcp), G-quadruplex/hemin DNAzyme and nanofibrous membrane together. HCVcp was detected in whole serum at the ultralow concentration of 1.0 x 10(-4) pg/mL with naked eye. By testing serum samples from 30 donors with different viral loads, detection sensitivity of the plasmonic nanoplatform turned out to be much better than that of the commercial ELISA kit. In addition, the plasmonic nanoplatform exhibited high specificity, excellent reusability and long-term stability. Naked-eye detection based on the plasmonic nanoplatform is expected to have potential applications in point-of-care testing (POCT) and early diagnosis of hepatitis C and other infectious diseases.