A Highly Sensitive Time-Gated Fluorescence Immunoassay Platform Using Mn-Doped AgZnInS/ZnS Nanocrystals as Signal Transducers

In this work, a time-gated immunoassay platform using low-energy excitable and fluorescence long-lived Mn:AgZnInS/ZnS nanocrystals as signal transducers, was developed and applied to the detection of the capsular polysaccharide (CPS) of Burkholderia pseudomallei, a Gram-negative bacterium that is the causative agent of melioidosis). CPS is a high molecular weight antigen displayed and shed from the outer membrane of B. pseudomallei. The immunoassay using the time-gated platform presents a limit of detection at around 23 pg/mL when CPS is spiked in human serum.