Highly sensitive detection of protein biomarkers via nuclear magnetic resonance biosensor with magnetically engineered nanoferrite particles

Abstract

Magnetic-based biosensors are attractive for on-site detection of biomarkers due to the low magnetic susceptibility of biological samples. Here, we report a highly sensitive magnetic-based biosensing system that is composed of a miniaturized nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) device and magnetically engineered nanoferrite particles (NFPs). The sensing performance, also identified as the transverse relaxation (R₂) rate, of the NMR device is directly related to the magnetic properties of the NFPs. Therefore, we developed magnetically engineered NFPs (MnMg-NFP) and used them as NMR agents to exhibit a significantly improved R₂ rate. The magnetization of the MnMg-NFPs was increased by controlling the Mn and Mg cation concentration and distribution during the synthesis process. This modification of the Mn and Mg cation directly contributed to improving the R₂ rate. The miniaturized NMR system, combined with the magnetically engineered MnMg-NFPs, successfully detected a small amount of infectious influenza A H1N1 nucleoprotein with high sensitivity and stability.

Keywords:

• biosensor
• NMR
• nanoferrite particles
• transverse relaxation
• magnetization
• on-site detection

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (2013R1A6A3A04063923), the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the NRF funded by the Korean government MSIP (2015M3A9E2029265), and Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute funded by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea (HI15C-3078-020015).

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.