Developments in three-dimensional (3D) printing technologies have led to many potential applications in various biomedical fields, especially artificial bone substitutes (ABSs). However, due to the characteristics of artificial materials, biocompatibility and infection remain issues. Here, multifunctional ABSs have been designed to overcome these issues by the inclusion of a biochemical modality that allows simultaneous detection of an infection biomarker by osteo-friend 3D scaffolds. The developed multifunctional scaffolds consist of calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite (CDHA), which has a similar geometric structure and chemical composition to human bone, and gold nanoparticles (Au NPs), which assists osteogenesis and modulates the fluorescence of labels in their microenvironment. The Au NPs were subsequently conjugated with fluorescent dye-labeled probe DNA, which allowed selective interaction with a specific target biomarker, and the fluorescent signal of the dye was temporally quenched by the Au NP-derived Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET). When the probe DNA unfolded to bind to the target biomarker, the fluorescence signal was recovered due to the increased distance between the dye and Au NPs. To demonstrate this sensing mechanism, a microbial oligonucleotide was selected as a target biomarker. Consequently, the multifunctional scaffold simultaneously facilitated osteogenic proliferation and the detection of the infection biomarker.
Keywords: Au NPs; CDHA; FRET; multifunctional artificial bone substitutes; probe DNA.