Aptamer-Linked Photonic Crystal Sensor for Rapid Point-of-Care Detection of Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus-1 (HIV-1)

Abstract

The detection of the human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV) at an early stage is vital and could be realized through its cell surface glycoprotein-120 (gp120) without virus preprocessing. Here, we present an ssDNA-aptamer-linked photonic crystal (APC) hydrogel sensor for HIV detection which is comprised of photonic crystals (PCs) made of polystyrene nanoparticles polymerized within the polyacrylamide hydrogel. Gp120 responsive ssDNA aptamers are crosslinked in the hydrogel network which can selectively bind to gp120 by hydrogen bonding and swell the hydrogel, besides increasing the particle spacing. The binding response can be visually monitored by diffraction of light from PCs and can be measured by the diffraction ring diameter or a spectrometer. Aptamer-gp120 crosslinks can be dissolved by Tris-HCl and EDTA washing buffer system for regeneration of the hydrogel. The sensor demonstrates LOD of 16.65 ± 0.55 ng mL -1 , the rapid response of 5 min, reusability up to 70% (in fifth use), and recovery of 95.4 ± 0.1% to 99.0 ± 0.2% in serum samples. The sensor can be stored in the form of dried hydrogels and rehydrated for use without loss of activity. It can be utilized to develop point-of-care testing (POCT) devices for HIV diagnosis.

Note:
Funding Information: We are thankful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China [U1530141, 21804009, 21874009].

Declaration of Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Keywords: HIV, Gp120, Aptamers, Photonic crystals, Hydrogels, point-of-care testing