Development of an optical biosensor for diagnosis of tuberculosis

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the developing world. Early and accurate diagnosis of TB would greatly enhance the treatment and prevention of the disease. Current methods of TB detection suffer from various limitations such as low specificity and sensitivity, being too complex and expensive. In the present work, we aim to develop an optical biosensor based on DNA aptamers, quantum dot (QD) crystals and magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) for detection of MPT64 protein, specific to M.tuberculosis. Aptamer-MNP conjugate is used for separation of MPT64 from solution, while aptamer-QD is used to detect its presence afterwards using fluorometer.