Synergistic effect of magnetite and gold nanoparticles onto the response of a label-free impedimetric hepatitis B virus DNA biosensor

A magnetite and gold nanoparticle modified carbon paste electrode (CPE) was prepared for the immobilization of a thiol modified Hepatitis B virus (HBV) probe DNA and determination trace amount of target HBV DNA. Indeed, the sensing platform integrated two nanoparticles that had previously been employed individually in the DNA biosensors. The proposed DNA biosensor could measure target HBV DNA virus concentration with a low detection limit of 3.1 (+/- 0.1) x 10-(13) M, which was greatly lower than the detection limit reported with gold or magnetite nanoparticles alone. The change of interfacial charge transfer resistance (R-CT) was confirmed the hybrid formation between probe and target HBV DNA. The R-CT difference (before and after hybridization with the target HBV DNA) was in a linear relationship with the logarithm of complementary oligonucleotide concentrations in the range of 8.3 (+/- 0.1) x 10(-13) to 6.4 (+/- 0.2) x 10(-7) M. In addition, the novel methodology for specific DNA sequence detection was highly selective, repeatable, and reproducible. Finally, this work was successfully utilized for the sensitive and label free impedimetric determination of HBV target DNA in the urine and blood plasma samples. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.