Fast and sensitive detection of Japanese encephalitis virus based on a magnetic molecular imprinted polymer–resonance light scattering sensor

A magnetic surface molecularly imprinted-resonance light scattering sensor was developed for rapid and highly sensitive detection of Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV). To prepare the surface imprinted polymer, Fe3O4 microspheres were selected as imprinting substrates which coated by silicon. Aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (APTES) as functional monomers for fixing template molecules JEV through a polymerization process of tetraethyl-orthosilicate (TEOS). The target virus JEV could be captured by the imprinted particles fastly and selectively, resulting in an increase of the RLS intensity. The results of RLS analysis proved that the obtained imprinted nanoparticles exhibited excellent specific recognition ability and high selectivity for the template virus (JEV). Furthermore, the response time of the sensor is within 20 min, which is much shorter than the previous works. The sensor with convenient separation and the limit of detection was 1.3 pM. These experimental results show that the proposed strategy is expected to achieve rapid and sensitive detection of JEV in practical applications. Amino-modified Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoparticles were prepared by modifying Fe3O4 with tetraethylorthosilicate and aminopropyltriethoxysilane. JEV was used as a template to obtain virus-imprinted polymer. The resulting imprinted nanoparticles can capture the target virus quickly and sensitively, resulting in increased RLS intensity. This method can not only show high selectivity, but also can be used for quantitative detection of JEV in a wide linear range, thus it provides new ideas for the effective detection of viruses. [Display omitted] •This MIPs-RLS sensor can detect JEV selectively with a detection limit of 1.3 pM.•The obtained nanoparticles can be magnetically separated and eluted by using Fe3O4.•The proposed assay can achieve rapid detection for JEV within 20 min.