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Reusable resistive aptasensor for Pb(II) based on the Pb(II)-induced despiralization of a DNA duplex and formation of a G-quadruplex

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Abstract

The article describes a reusable biosensor for Pb(II) ions. A duplex DNA with a terminal amino group and containing a G-quadruplex (G4) aptamer was covalently conjugated to single walled carbon nanotubes on a field effect transistor (FET). The detection scheme is based on the despiralization of the DNA duplex because Pb(II) can induce the G4 aptamer to form a stabilizing G4/Pb(II) complex. This structural change affects the electrical conductivity of SWNTs which serves as the analytical signal. The biosensor was characterized via scanning electron microscopy, Raman, UV-vis, and voltage-current profiles. Under optimized conditions, the relative resistance at 0.02 V increases linearly with the logarithm of the Pb(II) concentration in the range from 1 ng·L−1 to 100 μg·L−1, and the limit of detection is 0.39 ng·L−1. Compared to other sensors, this oner demonstrates superior simplicity, sensitivity, and selectivity even in mixtures of heavy metal ions. It was applied to the determination of Pb(II) in (spiked) water and soil samples and gave good results.

Schematic of the fabrication a biosensor for Pb(II). It is making use of an SWNT-based FET, G4-DNA and complementary DNA with an amino group. Pb(II) can despiralize the DNA duplex to form a G-quadruplex which affects the electrical conductivity of SWNTs. After each detection, the single complementary strand DNA can rebind the G4-DNA, which makes the biosensor reusable.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (No. 31671578), National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No.2013AA102302), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2016 XD001) and the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. ZR2015CM016).

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Author notes

  1. Hui Wang

    Present address: Key Laboratory of Modern Precision Agriculture System Integration Research, Ministry of Education and Key Laboratory of Agricultural Information Acquisition Technology, Ministry of Agriculture China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

  2. Hui Wang and Gang Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Modern Precision Agriculture System Integration Research, Ministry of Education and Key Laboratory of Agricultural Information Acquisition Technology, Ministry of Agriculture China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Gang Liu

  2. School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, People’s Republic of China

    Yang Liu

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  1. Hui Wang
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Correspondence to Gang Liu.

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Wang, H., Liu, Y. & Liu, G. Reusable resistive aptasensor for Pb(II) based on the Pb(II)-induced despiralization of a DNA duplex and formation of a G-quadruplex. Microchim Acta 185, 142 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-018-2682-0

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