Abstract
Saxitoxin (STX), one of the most toxic paralytic shellfish poisons discovered to date, is listed as a required item of aquatic product safety inspection worldwide. However, conventional detection methods for STX are limited by various issues, such as low sensitivity, complicated operations, and ethical considerations. In this study, an aptamer-triplex molecular switch (APT-TMS) and gold nanoparticle (AuNP) nanozyme were combined to develop a label-free colorimetric aptasensor for the rapid and highly sensitive detection of STX. An anti-STX aptamer designed with pyrimidine arms and a purine chain was fabricated to form an APT-TMS. Specific binding between the aptamer and STX triggered the opening of the switch, which causes the purine chains to adsorb onto the surface of the AuNPs and enhances the peroxidase-like activity of the AuNP nanozyme toward 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine. Under optimized conditions, the proposed aptasensor showed high sensitivity and selectivity for STX, with a limit of detection of 335.6 pmol L−1 and a linear range of 0.59–150 nmol L−1. Moreover, good recoveries of 82.70%–92.66% for shellfish and 88.97%–106.5% for seawater were obtained. The analysis could be completed within 1 h. The proposed design also offers a robust strategy to achieve detection of other marine toxin targets by altering the corresponding aptamers.
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This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31801620).
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Qi, X., Li, L., Yan, X. et al. A Label-Free Colorimetric Aptasensor Containing DNA Triplex Molecular Switch and AuNP Nanozyme for Highly Sensitive Detection of Saxitoxin. J. Ocean Univ. China 21, 1343–1350 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-022-5004-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-022-5004-4