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Nanomaterial-based sandwich-type electrochemical aptasensor platform for sensitive voltammetric determination of leptin

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Abstract

A sandwich-type electrochemical aptasensor was designed for sensitive detection of leptin in biological samples, including human serum and human plasma. The developed aptasensor was produced by electrodeposition of gold nanoparticles on a screen-printed electrode modified with zinc oxide nanoparticles. The synergy effect of zinc oxide and gold nanoparticles improved the electrocatalytic activity of the aptasensor. The obtained high surface area allowed more aptamer molecules to be loaded on the electrode surface. Signal amplification significantly increases the detection sensitivity of a developed biosensor. Although the use of nanomaterials is the most preferred detection tool for this purpose, as an alternative, enzyme-catalyzed signal amplification is widely used in the construction of a biosensor due to its specificity and high catalytic efficiency. Therefore, both nanomaterial-supported and an alkaline phosphatase-based aptasensor design were developed, which can produce in situ electroactive product by enzymatic hydrolysis of the inactive substrate to achieve a higher signal-to-background ratio. Under optimal conditions, the developed aptasensor exhibited a wide linear concentration range from 0.01 pg mL−1 to 100.0 pg mL−1 with a detection limit of 0.0035 pg mL−1. While the developed aptasensor provided excellent selectivity in the presence of some interfering compounds, it possessed outstanding reproducibility and stability. In addition, the developed aptasensor has been applied with good recoveries in the range 96.31 to 108.79% in human serum and plasma samples. In conclusion, all the obtained results showed the feasibility of the developed aptasensor for practical applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was produced from the PhD thesis of Cem Erkmen (Ankara University, Health Sciences Institute). The Council of Higher Education (YOK) was greatly appreciated for providing scholarships under the special 100/2000 scholarship program to Cem Erkmen. Cem Erkmen also thanks to the financial support from The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK) under the BIDEB/2211-A doctoral scholarship program.The authors acknowledge The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK, project no.: 122Z695) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ankara University, 06560, Ankara, Turkey

    Cem Erkmen & Bengi Uslu

  2. The Graduate School of Health Sciences, Ankara University, 06110, Ankara, Turkey

    Cem Erkmen

  3. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Ankara University, 06100, Ankara, Turkey

    Gözde Aydoğdu Tığ

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Erkmen, C., Tığ, G.A. & Uslu, B. Nanomaterial-based sandwich-type electrochemical aptasensor platform for sensitive voltammetric determination of leptin. Microchim Acta 189, 396 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-022-05487-z

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