Label-free detection of DNA by combining gated mesoporous silica and catalytic signal amplification of platinum nanoparticles

This article presents a simple label-free detection of nucleic acids by using Pt@mesoporousSiO2 as a "smart" reporter, whose pores are first capped by single-stranded (ss) probe DNA. The detection signal is then amplified using the TMB oxidation reaction catalysed by Pt NPs while hybridizing with the complementary ss target DNA, which makes the pores of mesoporous SiO2 open through hybridization.