A magneto-optical biochip for rapid assay based on the Cotton–Mouton effect of γ-Fe2O3@Au core/shell nanoparticles

Background In the past decades, different diseases and viruses, such as Ebola, MERS and COVID-19, impacted the human society and caused huge cost in different fields. With the increasing threat from the new or unknown diseases, the demand of rapid and sensitive assay method is more and more urgent. Results In this work, we developed a magneto-optical biochip based on the Cotton–Mouton effect of γ-Fe2O3@Au core/shell magnetic nanoparticles. We performed a proof-of-concept experiment for the detection of the spike glycoprotein S of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The assay was achieved by measuring the magneto-optical Cotton–Mouton effect of the biochip. This magneto-optical biochip can not only be used to detect SARS-CoV-2 but also can be easily modified for other diseases assay. Conclusion The assay process is simple and the whole testing time takes only 50 min including 3 min for the CM rotation measurement. The detection limit of our method for the spike glycoprotein S of SARS-CoV-2 is estimated as low as 0.27 ng/mL (3.4 pM). Graphic abstract Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-021-01030-z.

Highlights We developed a biochip for rapid assay based on the magneto-optical Cotton–Mouton (CM) effect of γ-Fe2O3@Au core/shell magnetic nanoparticles.The easy and quick assay for detection of the spike glycoprotein S of SARS-CoV-2 was demonstrated, and whole process takes approximately 50 min including 3 min for the CM rotation measurement with the detection limit of 0.27 ng/mL (3.4 pM).This magneto-optical biochip we proposed can be easily modified to use as assays for other diseases. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-021-01030-z.