Ultrasensitive electrochemical detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis IS6110 fragment using gold nanoparticles decorated fullerene nanoparticles/nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheet as signal tags

Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), remains the top fatal infection continuing to threat public health, and the present detection method for MTB is facing great challenges with the global TB burden. In response to this issue, a novel electrochemical DNA biosensor was developed for detecting the IS6110 fragment within MTB. For the first time, the nanohybrid of gold nanoparticles decorated fullerene nanoparticles/nitrogen-doped graphene nanosheet (Au-nano-C60/NGS) directly served as a new signal tag to generate signal response without additional redox molecules and subsequently labeled with signal probes (SPs) to form tracer label to achieve signal amplification. Additionally, a biotin-avidin system was introduced to immobilize abundant capture probes (CPs), further improving the sensitivity of the proposed biosensor. After a typical sandwich hybridization, the proposed electrochemical DNA biosensor was incubated with tetraoctylammonium bromide (TOAB), which was used as a booster to induce the intrinsic redox activity of the tracer label, resulting in a discriminating current response. The proposed electrochemical DNA biosensor shows a broad linear range for MTB determination from 10 fM to 10 nM with a low limit of detection (LOD) of 3 fM. In addition, this proposed biosensor not only distinguishes mismatched DNA sequence, but also differentiates MTB from other pathogenic agents. More importantly, it has been preliminarily applied in clinical detection and displayed excellent ability to identify the PCR products of clinical samples. There is great potential for this developed method to be used in early diagnosis and monitor of TB. [Display omitted] •The Au-nano-C60/NGS nanohybrid was employed as a signal tag in MTB DNA detection for the first time.•NGS combined with nano-C60 and AuNPs resulted in high conductivity and outstanding redox activity.•Preliminary application of the proposed biosensor in clinical detection displayed satisfying results.