A novel CdTe quantum dots probe amplified resonance light scattering signals to detect microRNA-122.

We report a rapid and facile resonance light scattering (RLS) technique that utilizes CdTe quantum dots (CdTe QDs) probe to detect microRNA-122. The RLS sensor is ingeniously designed with P1 and P2, two cDNA sequence probes with partially complementary sequences to miRNA-122. The amine-modified P1 and P2 are coupled to the surface of QDs to form functional QDs-P1 and QDs-P2 conjugates, which are collectively referred to as QDs-P. The cDNAs hybridize with the target miRNA to rapidly induce the self-assembly of QDs probe and change RLS intensity. The proposed technique can detect miRNA-122 within 40min. RLS intensity is enhanced in proportion with miRNA-122 concentrations of 0.16-4.80nM and has a low detection limit of 9.4pM. In addition, the assay satisfactorily detects miRNAs in human serum samples. Thus, the assay has considerable potential for the analysis of other interesting tumor makers.