A smartphone-assisted colorimetric aptasensor based on aptamer and gold nanoparticles for visual, fast and sensitive detection of ZEN in maize

Liyuan Zhang; Jiayu Chen; Lifeng Lu; Runzhong Yu; Dongjie Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.fochx.2023.100792

A smartphone-assisted colorimetric aptasensor based on aptamer and gold nanoparticles for visual, fast and sensitive detection of ZEN in maize

Food Chem X. 2023 Jul 18:19:100792. doi: 10.1016/j.fochx.2023.100792. eCollection 2023 Oct 30.

Authors

Liyuan Zhang¹, Jiayu Chen¹, Lifeng Lu¹, Runzhong Yu², Dongjie Zhang^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ College of Food Science, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, 5 Xinfeng Road, Daqing 163319, PR China.
² College of Information and Electrical Engineering, Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, 5 Xinfeng Road, Daqing 163319, PR China.
³ Chinese National Engineering Research Center, Daqing 163319, PR China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Agro-products Processing and Quality Safety of Heilongjiang Province, Daqing 163319, PR China.

Abstract

A simple, fast, low cost, sensitive, intuitive, visual, label-free, and smartphone-assisted aptamer sensor based on colorimetric assay for the measurement of zearalenone was constructed. The nucleic acid aptamer of zearalenone was used as the recognition element and gold nanoparticles were used as the indicator. Several factors that could influence sensitivity, including the concentration of aptamer and NaCl, and incubation time, and specificity, have been investigated. The results showed that under the optimal conditions, the signal had a good linear relationship when zearalenone concentration is 5-300 ng/mL. A linear regression equation is Y = 0.0003X + 0.5128 (R² = 0.9989) and a limit of detection is 5 ng/mL. The specificity of the sensor was good. Zearalenone in maize samples were successfully measured. The recoveries of Zearalenone are 81.3 %-96.4 %. The whole process takes only 15 min to complete. The smartphone assisted colorimetric aptamer sensor can be used for the detection of zearalenone in maize.

Keywords: Aptamer; Colorimetric aptamer sensor; Gold nanoparticles; Measurement; Smartphone assisted; Zearalenone.