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Development of a Highly Sensitive Colorimetric Method for Detecting 17β-Estradiol Based on Combination of Gold Nanoparticles and Shortening DNA Aptamers

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Abstract

Pollution of environmental endocrine disruptors has caused increasing concern globally. In the current study, a simple colorimetric method with high sensitivity and good selectivity for 17β-estradiol (E2) detection was developed, which employed gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as colorimetric probe for specific recognition of shortening DNA aptamer. Visible color change from bright red to violet was observed for aggregation of AuNPs without the protection of DNA aptamer. After optimization, the method exhibited great performance for E2 detection with good linearity between E2 concentrations from 0.2 to 5 nM and the absorbance ratio at 620 and 523 nm, with the limit of detection of 0.1 nM. The method was also successfully applied to E2 determination in different spiked water samples including fishpond water, lake water, and tap water, in which good recoveries from 93.1 to 108.9% and acceptable relative standard deviations from 3.4 to 8.9% were obtained. This technique showed great potential for on-site fast determination of E2 in environmental water samples.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFC1603404). This research was also supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2018MS056, 2017MS075), the International and Hong Kong – Macau - Taiwan Collaborative Innovation Platform of Guangdong Province on Intelligent Food Quality Control and Process Technology & Equipment (2015KGJHZ001), the Guangdong Provincial R & D Centre for the Modern Agricultural Industry on Non-destructive Detection and Intensive Processing of Agricultural Products, the Common Technical Innovation Team of Guangdong Province on Preservation and Logistics of Agricultural Products (2016LM2154), and the Innovation Centre of Guangdong Province for Modern Agricultural Science and Technology on Intelligent Sensing and Precision Control of Agricultural Product Qualities. In addition, Dr. Hongbin Pu was grateful to China Scholarship Council (CSC) for supporting his visiting scholarship (201706155019) at National University of Singapore.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Food Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510641, China

    Hongbin Pu, Zhibin Huang, Da-Wen Sun & Xiaohui Xie

  2. Academy of Contemporary Food Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Hongbin Pu, Zhibin Huang, Da-Wen Sun & Xiaohui Xie

  3. Engineering and Technological Research Centre of Guangdong Province on Intelligent Sensing and Process Control of Cold Chain Foods, Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, Guangzhou, 510006, China

    Hongbin Pu, Zhibin Huang, Da-Wen Sun & Xiaohui Xie

  4. Food Refrigeration and Computerized Food Technology (FRCFT), Agriculture and Food Science Centre, University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Belfield, Dublin 4, Dublin, Ireland

    Da-Wen Sun

  5. Food Science and Technology Program, Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117543, Singapore

    Weibiao Zhou

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  1. Hongbin Pu
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Correspondence to Da-Wen Sun.

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Pu, H., Huang, Z., Sun, DW. et al. Development of a Highly Sensitive Colorimetric Method for Detecting 17β-Estradiol Based on Combination of Gold Nanoparticles and Shortening DNA Aptamers. Water Air Soil Pollut 230, 124 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-019-4171-4

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