aptamer-based electrochemical biosensor for botulinum.pdfVIP

Anal Bioanal Chem (2009) 393:1943– 1948 DOI 10.1007/s00216-009-2687-y ORIGINAL PAPER Aptamer-based electrochemical biosensor for Botulinum neurotoxin Fang Wei Chih-Ming Ho Received: 12 December 2008 / Revised: 28 January 2009 /Accepted: 4 February 2009 /Published online: 24 February 2009 # The Author(s) 2009. This article is published with open access at S Abstract We have developed an aptamer-based electro- addressing biosafety concerns. Among the seven defined chemical sensor for detection of Botulinum neurotoxin, serotypes of BoNT (A to G), type A is the most frequent where steric hindrance is applied to achieve specific signal cause of cases of human botulism [4]. Conventional methods amplification via conformational change of the aptamer. for detection of BoNT are primarily immunoassay-based and The incubation time and potassium concentration of the have a sensitivity of 2–60 pg/ml [5, 6]. However, immuno- reaction buffer were found to be key parameters affecting assay of BoNT requires time-consuming and labor-intensive the sensitivity of detection of the recognition of Botulinum process of screening highly specific human monoclonal neurotoxin by the aptamer. Under optimized experimental antibodies [5, 7]. In contrast, aptamers are fragments of conditions, a high signal-to-noise ratio was obtained within oligonucleotides which can bind specifically to target 24 h with a limit of detection (LOD) of 40 pg/ml by two proteins in the presence of appropriate conformational standard deviation cutoffs above the noise level. change [8– 10] and have the advantages of simpler screening methods, higher stability tha