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Label-free Aptasensor for the Ultrasensitive Detection of Insulin Via a Synergistic Fluorescent Turn-on Strategy Based on G-quadruplex and AIEgens

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Abstract

Insulin, the only hormone regulating blood glucose level, is strongly associated with diabetes and its complications. Specific recognition and ultrasensitive detection of insulin are of clinical significance for the early diagnosis and treatment of diabetes. Inspired by aggregation-induced emission, we presented a turn-on label-free fluorescence aptasensor for insulin detection. Quaternized tetraphenylethene salt was synthesized as the fluorescence probe. Guanine-rich aptamer IGA3 was selected as recognition element. Graphene oxide was chosen as the quencher. Under optimized conditions, the fluorescence aptasensor displayed a wide linear range (1.0 pM–1.0 μM) with a low limit of detection (0.42 pM). Furthermore, the aptasensor was successfully applied to detect insulin in human serum. Spiked recoveries were obtained in the range of 96.06%–104.26%. All these results demonstrated that the proposed approach has potential application in the clinical diagnostics of diabetes.

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All data recorded and analyzed in this article are already included. Data will be available based on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Program for Public Welfare Technology of Zhejiang Province (LGF20B050001), Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LY20B050009), and Program for Science and Technology of Jiaxing City (2018AY11002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Petrochemical Engineering, Changzhou University, Changzhou, 213016, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaohui Zeng

  2. Jiaxing Key Laboratory of Molecular Recognition and Sensing, College of Biological, Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, 314001, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaohui Zeng, Hailong Wang, Yanbo Zeng, Yiwen Yang, Zulei Zhang & Lei Li

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  1. Xiaohui Zeng
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  6. Lei Li
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Contributions

Xiaohui Zeng: investigation, writing-original draft, Hailong Wang: Conceptualization, Supervision, Investigation, Writing—review & editing, Funding acquisition. Yanbo Zeng, Yiwen Yang and Zulei Zhang: Writing—review & editing. Lei Li: Funding acquisition, Resources, Supervision, Writing- review & editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hailong Wang or Lei Li.

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Zeng, X., Wang, H., Zeng, Y. et al. Label-free Aptasensor for the Ultrasensitive Detection of Insulin Via a Synergistic Fluorescent Turn-on Strategy Based on G-quadruplex and AIEgens. J Fluoresc 33, 955–963 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-022-03116-9

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