CC BY
8B-I-17
BIOMEDICAL PHOTONICS
Quantum nano-plasmonics for biosensing and bioimaging on the level of
single molecules and virions
P. Melentiev,1 D. Kudryavtsev,2 V. Mozhaeva,2 A. Kalmykov,1 A. Gritchenko,1 B. Khlebtsov,3 R. Kirtaev,4 D. Negrov,4 I. Ivanov,2 A. Siniavin,2'5 V. Tsetlin,2 V. Balykin1
1Institute of Spectroscopy RAS, Moscow 108840, Russia;
2Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the RAS, Moscow 117997, Russia
3Institute of Biochemistry and Physiology of Plants and Microorganisms, Saratov Scientific Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 13 Prospekt Entuziastov, Saratov 410049, Russia Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Dolgoprudniy, Moscow reg., 141700, Russia
5N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow 123098, Russia
The detection and visualization of single atoms and molecules has always been one of the primary tasks of both fundamental scientific and practical importance: the study of the effects of quantum electrodynamics, the development of monatomic/single-molecule devices, the visualization of biological tissues, and much more. Recently, single-molecule detection methods have been used to detect substances at very low concentrations: The molecules of an analyte are detected one by one in a sample, which is known as the single molecule counting method (SMCM).
Recent advances in quantum technology at the nanoscale have enabled the construction of nanoscale mesoscopic systems with quantum emitters, metal and dielectric nanostructures. These systems can exhibit profound quantum electro-dynamic properties due to various physical mechanisms such as Foerster energy transfer, plasmonic field enhancement, and strong optical matter-wave coupling. In our study, we demonstrate the realization of ultra-brigh and optically stable plasmonic nano-emitters suitable for the detection and visualization of single biomolecules and virions.
In our study, we consider SMCM in sensing based on the use of ultra-bright and optically-stable plasmonic na-no-emitters of light. The approach demonstrates sensitivity at the single molecule level, enabling 5-minute-per-detection of practically important biomarkers of human diseases. As a practical implementation of SMCM, we demonstrate: (i) detection of biomolecules at ultralow concentrations of troponin in human blood - the most important biomarker for human cardiovascular disease - at a level of 10 - 20 fM, (ii) detection of SARS-COV -2 viral particles (human corona-virus). The basic limitations of the sensitivity of such approaches and the issues of their practical implementation will be discussed.
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