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A competitive colorimetric chloramphenicol assay based on the non-cross-linking deaggregation of gold nanoparticles coated with a polyadenine-modified aptamer

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Abstract

A competitive colorimetric assay has been established to detect chloramphenicol (CAP). It is based on the use of colloidal and electrostatically stabilized aptamer-modified gold nanoparticles (GNPs). The CAP aptamer is modified by a sequence of 5 adenosine groups to anchor it on the surface of GNPs. It can competitively capture two compounds, viz. D-(-)-threo-2-amino-1-(4-nitrophenyl)-1,3-propanediol (CAP-base, with a positive charge) and CAP (which is uncharged). The capture of the positively charged CAP-base triggers the aggregation of modified GNPs in salt-containing solution, and this causes a color change from red to purple. However, in the presence of CAP and CAP-base, the capture of the uncharged CAP weakens this color change by a competing process for capture. Thus, the concentration of CAP is associated with the degree of deaggregation of GNPs and can be quantified by the ratio of absorbances at 620 nm and 520 nm. The assay has a 22 nM limit of detection in acidic solution, and the response is linear in the range of 0.20 to 3.20 μM CAP concentration. This assay was successfully applied to the determination of CAP in spiked environmental water samples. Conceivably, this method has a wide scope in that it may be applied to a wide range of analytes if respective aptamers are available.

Schematic presentation of a competitive non-cross linking deaggregating method for detecting chloramphenicol. The surface charge of polyA-Apt@GNPs and its aggregation degree (purple) are determined by the charge of target. (CAP-base: precursor of CAP; PolyA-Apt@GNPs: 5′-polyA-modified DNA aptamer functionalized gold nanoparticles.)

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Acknowledgements

This work is sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21707137), the Key Application and Development Program of Chongqing (No. cstc2017shmsA0159), Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing (Grant No. cstc2018jcyjAX0718), Research Funding Project of Yangtze Normal University (No. 2017KYQD23), Young Scientist Research Fund of Yangtze Normal University, Open Research Fund Program of Key Laboratory of Reservoir Aquatic Environment of CAS.

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  1. Yuanyang Xie and Yu Huang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, 400714, China

    Yuanyang Xie, Yu Huang, Dongyun Tang & Hongliang Cui

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yuanyang Xie

  3. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangtze Normal University, Chongqing, 408100, China

    Haiyan Cao

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Correspondence to Yu Huang or Haiyan Cao.

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Xie, Y., Huang, Y., Tang, D. et al. A competitive colorimetric chloramphenicol assay based on the non-cross-linking deaggregation of gold nanoparticles coated with a polyadenine-modified aptamer. Microchim Acta 185, 534 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-018-3067-0

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