Scientific Reports (Jan 2022)

Ultrasensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein using large gold nanoparticle-enhanced surface plasmon resonance

  • Taka-aki Yano,
  • Taira Kajisa,
  • Masayuki Ono,
  • Yoshiya Miyasaka,
  • Yuichi Hasegawa,
  • Atsushi Saito,
  • Kunihiro Otsuka,
  • Ayuko Sakane,
  • Takuya Sasaki,
  • Koji Yasutomo,
  • Rina Hamajima,
  • Yuta Kanai,
  • Takeshi Kobayashi,
  • Yoshiharu Matsuura,
  • Makoto Itonaga,
  • Takeshi Yasui

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05036-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has created urgent demand for rapid detection of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Herein, we report highly sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (N protein) using nanoparticle-enhanced surface plasmon resonance (SPR) techniques. A crucial plasmonic role in significantly enhancing the limit of detection (LOD) is revealed for exceptionally large gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with diameters of hundreds of nm. SPR enhanced by these large nanoparticles lowered the LOD of SARS-CoV-2 N protein to 85 fM, resulting in the highest SPR detection sensitivity ever obtained for SARS-CoV-2 N protein.