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Aptamer-functionalized pH-responsive polymer-modified magnetic nanoparticles for specific enrichment and sensitive determination of lactoferrin

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Abstract

A new type of aptamer-functionalized pH-responsive polymer-modified magnetic nanoparticles (ApMNPs) is introduced for specific enrichment and sensitive determination of lactoferrin (Lf) in complex matrixes. In the construction, Fe3O4@3-(Triethoxysilyl)propylmethacrylate@poly(4-Vinyl-1, 3-dioxolan-2-one-acrylic acid) (Fe3O4@MPS@p(VEC-AA)) were synthesized as pH-responsive polymer-modified magnetic nanoparticles (pMNPs) through free radical polymerization to increase the tunable interaction. Lf-binding aptamers were conjugated onto pMNPs through the reaction of amino-group in aptamer and epoxide-group in VEC, innovatively applied to prepare Lf-ApMNPs. On the basis of the synergistic effect of specific affinity of aptamer on Lf and tunable hydrophobic/hydrophilic property of pH-responsive polymer, Lf-ApMNPs presented good selectivity toward Lf, excellent adsorption capacity (as high as 233.9 mg g−1), as well as good recoveries in the range 93.6–99.6% in Lf-related nutrition samples. Significantly, the introduction of pH-responsive monomer (AA) effectively regulated the adsorption–desorption process of Lf, with the function similar to a switch. Moreover, the good performances of Ct-ApMNPs toward α-Chymotrypsin showed that ApMNPs exhibited universality to other proteins through easily changing the binding aptamer, thereby offering a facile and efficient approach for specific enrichment and sensitive determination of targets in real biological samples.

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Acknowledgements

All authors made the contributions to the manuscript and had approved the final version of the script. We thank the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China [no. 21874010, 21827810], Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality [no. 7222310], Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (no. ZR2022QB207), Supported by the Taishan Scholars Program, the Agricultural scientific and technological innovation project of the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CXGC2021B14, CXGC2022E05), and the Young Elite Scientist Sponsorship Program of the Beijing Association for Science and Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Biotherapy, School of Life Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, 5 South Zhongguancun Street, Beijing, 100081, China

    Yao Ma, Liping Zhao, Linsen Li & Feng Qu

  2. Institute of Quality Standard and Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, 250100, China

    Chao Zhu

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  1. Yao Ma
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Ma, Y., Zhao, L., Li, L. et al. Aptamer-functionalized pH-responsive polymer-modified magnetic nanoparticles for specific enrichment and sensitive determination of lactoferrin. Microchim Acta 190, 26 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-022-05589-8

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