Biomimetic graphene oxide-cationic multi-shaped gold nanoparticle-hemin hybrid nanozyme: Tuning enhanced catalytic activity for the rapid colorimetric apta-biosensing of amphetamine-type stimulants

Oluwasesan Adegoke; Svetlana Zolotovskaya; Amin Abdolvand; Niamh Nic Daeid

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2020.120990

Biomimetic graphene oxide-cationic multi-shaped gold nanoparticle-hemin hybrid nanozyme: Tuning enhanced catalytic activity for the rapid colorimetric apta-biosensing of amphetamine-type stimulants

Talanta. 2020 Aug 15:216:120990. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2020.120990. Epub 2020 Apr 8.

Authors

Oluwasesan Adegoke¹, Svetlana Zolotovskaya², Amin Abdolvand², Niamh Nic Daeid³

Affiliations

¹ Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4GH, UK. Electronic address: o.adegoke@dundee.ac.uk.
² Materials Science & Engineering Research Cluster, School of Science & Engineering, University of Dundee, UK.
³ Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4GH, UK.

PMID: 32456906
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2020.120990

Abstract

Amphetamine-type stimulants are a class of illicit drug that constitutes a worldwide problem to which intelligence agencies, first responders and law enforcement are tasked with identifying them in unknown samples. We report on the development of a graphene oxide (GO)-cationic multi-shaped gold nanoparticle (AuNP)-hemin hybrid nanozyme as a new biomimetic catalytic-induced aptamer-based colorimetric biosensor platform for amphetamine (AMP) and methamphetamine (MAMP). GO was electrostatically bonded to cationic multi-shaped cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-AuNPs to form a GO-CTAB-AuNP hybrid nanozyme exhibiting enhanced catalytic activity in the presence of hemin. The binding of an MNS 4.1 anticocaine DNA aptamer on the GO-CTAB-AuNP-hemin nanozyme assembly and the subsequent catalytic oxidation by 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine in the presence of H₂O₂ ensured that the colorimetric reaction was tuned to selectively detect AMP and MAMP with high sensitivity. Under optimum experimental conditions, AMP and MAMP were quantitatively detected within 1 min with a detection limit of 34.1 ng/mL and 28.6 ng/mL respectively. Selected substances and drugs, known to react positively to Marquis and Mandelin reagents (used in AMP and MAMP presumptive testing) and well-known adulterants, were tested for their affinity to react with the aptamer-based GO-CTAB-AuNP-hemin peroxidase mimic biosensor. The deep blue colorimetric reaction, specific to AMP and MAMP detection, was used as the basis to affirm the selectivity of the aptamer-based GO-CTAB-AuNP-hemin peroxidase mimic biosensor. We believe the colorimetric biosensor developed in this work demonstrates a promising new direction in presumptive testing for AMP and MAMP.

Keywords: Aptamer; Gold nanoparticle; Graphene oxide; Hemin; Peroxidase mimic.