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Amperometric thrombin aptasensor using a glassy carbon electrode modified with polyaniline and multiwalled carbon nanotubes tethered with a thiolated aptamer

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Abstract

A nanocomposite consisting of polyaniline and multiwalled carbon nanotubes was tethered with a thiolated thrombin-specific aptamer and placed on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) to obtain a biosensor for thrombin that has a limit of detection of 80 fM. Tethering was accomplished via a thiol-ene reaction between thiolated thrombin aptamer (TTA) and oxidized polyaniline (PANI) that was chemically synthesized in the presence of solution-dispersed multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The modified GCE exhibits a pair of well-defined redox peaks (at 50/−25 mV) of self-doped PANI in neutral solution, and the tethered TTA-thrombin interaction gives a decreased electrochemical signal. Cyclic voltammetry, scanning electron microscopy and ultraviolet visible spectroscopy were used to characterize the film properties. This amperometric aptasensor is sensitive, selective and reproducible. It was applied to the determination of thrombin in spiked human serum (0.2 to 4 nM) and gave recoveries that ranged from 95 to 102%.

A nanocomposite consisting of polyaniline (PANI) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) was tethered with a thiolated thrombin aptamer (TTA) and placed on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) to obtain a biosensor for thrombin that has a 80 f. detection limit.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21305039, 21475041, 21175042 and 21075036), the Foundation of Hunan Province (14JJ3097), the Program for Science and Technology Innovative Research Team in Higher Educational Institutions of Hunan Province, the Foundation of Hunan Provincial Education Department for Young Scholar, and the Foundation of Hunan Agricultural University (12YJ05). Thank Dr. Rui Tan (Postdoctoral associate of Department of Chemistry, Brown University) for checking the language.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Science, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 410128, People’s Republic of China

    Zhaohong Su, Xiaolin Xu, Haitao Xu, Chaorong Li, Yan Ma & Dongcheng Song

  2. Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education of China), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Zhang & Qingji Xie

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  1. Zhaohong Su
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  2. Xiaolin Xu
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Correspondence to Zhaohong Su or Qingji Xie.

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Su, Z., Xu, X., Xu, H. et al. Amperometric thrombin aptasensor using a glassy carbon electrode modified with polyaniline and multiwalled carbon nanotubes tethered with a thiolated aptamer. Microchim Acta 184, 1677–1682 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-017-2164-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-017-2164-9

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