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A simple mesoporous silica nanoparticle-based fluorescence aptasensor for the detection of zearalenone in grain and cereal products

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Abstract

Zearalenone (ZEN) is a type of estrogenic mycotoxin commonly occurring in cereals. The aim of this study was to design a simple, rapid, inexpensive and ultrasensitive fluorescence assay for the determination of ZEN. Here, amino-modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs-NH2) were synthesized to be the positive charge-rich reactor. A 6-carboxy-fluorescein-labeled aptamer (aptamer-FAM) was designed as the signal probe, ZEN-capture probe and negative charge reactor. In the absence of ZEN, the negatively charged aptamer-FAM combined with the positively charged MSNs-NH2 in an electrostatic manner. In the presence of ZEN, the fluorescence intensity in the supernatant increased significantly because the aptamer-FAM could bind to ZEN instead of MSNs-NH2. Under the optimal experimental conditions, this assay exhibited excellent specificity, repeatability and a wide linearity range of 0.005–150 ng/mL, with a detection limit of 0.012 ng/mL. Additionally, it showed high recovery (83.3–101.5%) for the spiked samples. There was no statistically significant difference in the ZEN concentrations detected by the proposed assay and HPLC in naturally contaminated samples. Overall, this design provides a new strategy for the rapid, inexpensive and sensitive detection of ZEN, and it could be applied to develop fluorometric assays for different targets by the selection of appropriate aptamers.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (Project NO. XDJK2020B044) and Venture & Innovation Support Program for Chongqing Overseas Returnees (Project No. cx2018032).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Food Science, Southwest University, No.2 Tiansheng Road, Beibei District, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Hongxia Tan, Ting Guo, Hongyuan Zhou, Hongjie Dai, Yong Yu, Hankun Zhu, Hongxia Wang, Yu Fu, Yuhao Zhang & Liang Ma

  2. Biological Science Research Center, Southwest University, No.2 Tiansheng Road, Beibei District, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Yuhao Zhang & Liang Ma

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  1. Hongxia Tan
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  2. Ting Guo
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  3. Hongyuan Zhou
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Correspondence to Yuhao Zhang or Liang Ma.

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Tan, H., Guo, T., Zhou, H. et al. A simple mesoporous silica nanoparticle-based fluorescence aptasensor for the detection of zearalenone in grain and cereal products. Anal Bioanal Chem 412, 5627–5635 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-020-02778-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-020-02778-3

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