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This paper describes the construction of a silver-based LSPR biosensor for endotoxin detection. We used GLAD method to procure reproducible silver nanocolumns. In this work, the silver nanostructures were considerably stabilized by a SAM of MPA, and the limit of detection of biosensor was measured to be 340 pg/ml for endotoxin E. coli. Considering endotoxin B. abortus as the second type of endotoxin contamination in our target samples (HBs-ag produced in Institute Pasteur, Iran), we investigated selectivity of the biosensor in various experiments. We showed that this biosensor can selectively detect both types of endotoxins compared to other biological species. Overall, this study proposes that LSPR biosensing can be considered as a sensitive, simple, and label-free method for endotoxin detection in the quality control laboratories., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The mechanism of adsorption of single and double stranded DNAs on colloidal gold and silver nanoparticles has been studied by measuring the resistance of the nanoparticles, surrounded by various oligonucleotides, against salt induced aggregation. It is shown that both single and double stranded DNAs can be adsorbed on the metal nanoparticles and the adsorption strength is determined by the interaction between various bases of DNA and the nanoparticles. By changing the salt concentration, the difference between adsorption of various DNA strands on the nanoparticles can be specified. The results indicate that a key parameter in success of a sensing assay of DNA hybridization is the salt concentration which should be greater than a minimum threshold depending on the nanoparticles characteristics. We have also investigated the interaction mechanism between various DNA bases with the metal nanoparticles. For both gold and silver nanoparticles, adenine has the highest and thymine has the lowest attachment to the nanoparticles. From surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) data of various bases in the presence of gold nanoparticles, the probable interaction points in the bases with the nanoparticles have been determined, which are mainly the nitrogen sites of these oligonucleotides., (Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The adsorption of single and double stranded DNA on colloidal silver nanoparticles has been studied to investigate the effects of surface charge of the nanoparticles, the composition of the oligonucleotide and its length on the adsorption characteristics. The results explain that the nanoparticle surface charge is a key parameter determining the propensity of oligonucleotides to adsorb on nanoparticles. The adsorption also depends on the length and composition of oligonucleotide. The protective effects of both single and double stranded DNA against salt-induced aggregation dramatically increase as the DNA length increases. In contrast to other available reports, we observed that long oligonucleotides (single-stranded and double stranded) can well be adsorbed on the nanoparticles as the short ones leading to almost complete protection of nanoparticles against salt induced aggregation and hence are not suitable for the sensing applications. Finally, the light scattering from the Ag nanoparticles has been simulated and the results compared with the experiments. Our understanding should improve development of colorimetric assays for DNA detection based on aggregation of unmodified metallic nanoparticles., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Plasmonic nanoclusters (NCs) have been introduced as new fluorescent materials that have low toxicity and do not undergo photo‐bleaching. Several factors including size and type of the NCs, surface chemistry and even solvent affect their luminescence. Despite extensive studies on tuning the fluorescence properties of NCs by manipulation of the above‐mentioned factors, very few researches have been focused on metal enhanced fluorescence (MEF) of them. In this study, the fabrication of silver dendritic nanostructured surfaces (DNSs) with numerous hotspots and unique plasmonic properties were optimized and DNSs were used as the substrates for fluorescence enhancement of NCs. NCs made of gold, silver and copper were synthesized by different stabilizing agents and compared with each other in terms of their MEF characteristics. The results showed that the stabilizing agent, the synthesis method and type of NCs affected their fluorescence enhancement by the DNSs. Copper NCs stabilized by bovine serum albumin (BSA) had the highest rate of fluorescence enhancement, with enhancement factor of 4.8 ± 0.8. Gold NCs synthesized by glutathione (GSH) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) demonstrated 3.9 ± 0.6 and 3.1 ± 0.4 fold fluorescence enhancement, respectively. The possibility of fluorescence enhancement of NCs in the vicinity of plasmonic nano‐structures introduces attractive platforms for sensing purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Label-free detection of biomarkers has been recently noticed and optical biosensors showed great potential to be the method of choice in such situation. Here, we used glancing angle deposition (GLAD) method in which silver nano-columns stabilized by a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 11-mercaptoundecanoic acid (MUA) and 6-mercaptohexanol to investigate the capability of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)–based silver nanochips to detect prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Using different standard solutions of PSA, limit of detection (LOD) of the nano-sensors has been calculated to be 850 pg/ml. The selectivity of the nano-sensors has also been evaluated. We showed that these nano-sensors could detect PSA in clinically acceptable sensitivity and specificity without any complicated laboratory equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) phenomenon has shown a promising potential in the field of fluorescence-based biological sensing. In this study, we optimized the electroless metal deposition method to fabricate silver dendritic nanostructures as effective MEF active substrates. Then, an aptasensor was developed for thrombin detection using the established surfaces. For this purpose, thiolated 29-mer thrombin-binding aptamers (TBA29 (12T) SH) as capturing aptamer were immobilized on the surface of silver dendritic nanostructures, then thrombin was sandwiched between the capturing aptamer and Cy5-labeled 15-mer thrombin aptamer (TBA15-Cy5). Quantitative analysis was performed through fluorescence signal measurement. The established aptasensor presented satisfactory sensitivity and selectivity and exhibited a limit of detection (LOD) as low as 32 pM. This aptasensor was also able to detect thrombin in the human serum at picomolar levels. Furthermore, the ease and relatively low-cost of fabrication of this platform introduce it as a tool with great potential for the clinical diagnosis of diseases and also for improving sensitivity of a variety of technologies which exploit fluorescent dyes for analyte detection, at ultra-trace levels, in complex matrices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]