MoS quantum dots featured fluorescent biosensor for multiple detection of cancer

Transition metal ions, such as those generated through MoS 2 material, possess an intrinsic fluorescence quenching property towards organic dye molecules; thus, they can be used to construct biosensors as quenchers. However, we found that the conventional bulk MoS 2 blocks the view of fluorescence imaging, and is incapable of tracing and visualizing mucin 1-overexpression cancer cells. Herein, a FAM fluorophore-labeled ssDNA fluorescent probe (P 0 -FAM) stacked on the surface of MoS 2 quantum dots (QDs) was used to construct a MoS 2 QDs-P 0 -FAM biosensor. MoS 2 QDs exhibit a high fluorescence quenching ability towards fluorescent dyes, possess large specific surface area and a large number of active sites to adsorb and quench more fluorescent probes, promoting sensitivity between quenching and the recovery signal. In addition, the lighter color of unstack-MoS 2 QDs is beneficial to define the location of cancer cells compared to MoS 2 nanosheets. The novel MoS 2 QDs-based biosensor demonstrates high sensitivity to MUC1 with a detection limit of 0.5 nM, and may become an important tool toward the detection of cancer cells. A novel MoS 2 quantum dot-based fluorescent biosensor is exploited to trace and visualize mucin 1-overexpression cancer cells.