Article abstract
Nature Nanotechnology 2, 577 - 583 (2007)
Published online: 26 August 2007 | doi:10.1038/nnano.2007.260
Subject Category: Nanobiotechnology
Intrinsic peroxidase-like activity of ferromagnetic nanoparticles
Lizeng Gao1,2,3,6, Jie Zhuang1,2,3,6, Leng Nie3,4, Jinbin Zhang1,2,3, Yu Zhang5, Ning Gu5, Taihong Wang4, Jing Feng1,2, Dongling Yang1,2, Sarah Perrett1 & Xiyun Yan1,2
Abstract
Nanoparticles containing magnetic materials, such as magnetite (Fe3O4), are particularly useful for imaging and separation techniques. As these nanoparticles are generally considered to be biologically and chemically inert, they are typically coated with metal catalysts, antibodies or enzymes to increase their functionality as separation agents. Here, we report that magnetite nanoparticles in fact possess an intrinsic enzyme mimetic activity similar to that found in natural peroxidases, which are widely used to oxidize organic substrates in the treatment of wastewater or as detection tools. Based on this finding, we have developed a novel immunoassay in which antibody-modified magnetite nanoparticles provide three functions: capture, separation and detection. The stability, ease of production and versatility of these nanoparticles makes them a powerful tool for a wide range of potential applications in medicine, biotechnology and environmental chemistry.
- National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 15 Datun Road, Beijing 100101, China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences–University of Tokyo Joint Laboratory of Structural Virology and Immunology, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 15 Datun Road, Beijing 100101, China
- Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
- Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 10080, China
- State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
- These authors contributed equally to this work
Correspondence to: Sarah Perrett1 e-mail: sarah.perrett@iname.com
Correspondence to: Xiyun Yan1,2 e-mail: yanxy@sun5.ibp.ac.cn
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