Functionalization of stable fluorescent nanodiamonds towards reliable detection of biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Stable and non-toxic fluorescent markers are gaining attention in molecular diagnostics as powerful tools for enabling long and reliable biological studies. Such markers should not only have a long half-life under several assay conditions showing no photo bleaching or blinking but also, they must allow for their conjugation or functionalization as a crucial step for numerous applications such as cellular tracking, biomarker detection and drug delivery.

Results: We report the functionalization of stable fluorescent markers based on nanodiamonds (NDs) with a bifunctional peptide.