Detection of HPV‐16 by a Simple and Cost‐Effective DNA Probe: Polyadenine–Polythymine‐Decorated Gold Nanoparticles (PolyA–PolyT@AuNPs)

ABSTRACT HPV‐16 identification is crucial for point‐of‐care molecular diagnosis of cervical cancer. However, the diagnostic methods currently in use are unable to combine both high analytical performance and cost‐efficient medical diagnosis. To circumvent this, we have developed a novel nanobiosensor for diagnosis of the HPV‐16 L1 gene sequence through colorimetric methods. Using a unique conjugation technique of polyvalent DNA to gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), quickly synthesizing AuNPs synthesis in situ at the particular probe‐polyadenine–polythymine (A 15 –T 10 ) strands was developed. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), gel electrophoresis, UV–Vis spectroscopy, and visual detection demonstrate that the Poly(A) 15 –(T) 10 strand can create separate anisotropic AuNPs so that a thick layer of DNA is functionalized on each AuNP, therefore generating polyvalent (p)DNA‐AuNPs. Moreover, the hybridization test, UV–Vis spectroscopy, TEM, visual detection, and DLS results further confirmed the innovative sensing applicability, showing more excellent attractiveness of pDNA‐AuNPs conjugation in diagnostics in biomedicine and particular sequence detection, such as double‐stranded DNA (dsDNA) by employing probe‐polyA–polyT extra‐strands that are in harmony with the intended sequence. This sensor demonstrated good performance levels with a sensitivity of up to 1.9 nM for pUCm‐T. Additionally, the sensor showed intense discrimination against actual clinically collected HPV‐16 samples, consistent stability, and good repeatability.