Gold nanoparticle-based enhanced ELISA for respiratory syncytial virus

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) mediates severe respiratory illness in infants and young children worldwide, and it is also a significant pathogen of the elderly and immune compromised. Due to the low infectious dose and high infectious rate of RSV, remarkably rapid and sensitive RSV detection is important for infection control and discovery of antiviral drugs. In this work, we described a highly sensitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) utilizing gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for the detection of RSV. Gold nanoparticles were used as carriers of the signalling antibody anti-RSV–HRP (horseradish peroxidase) in order to achieve an amplification of the signal. Compared to conventional ELISA procedures, this assay resulted in higher sensitivity and shorter assay time in the range between 0.5 and 50 pg mL−1. The application of AuNPs to the enhanced ELISA showed acceptable reproducibility, stability, and could be readily applied to determination of other pathogens in clinical diagnostics.