Development of Nanomaterial-Modified Impedimetric Aptasensor—A Single-Step Strategy for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethylamphetamine Detection

Abstract

Developing rapid, sensitive detection methods for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA) is crucial to reduce its current misuse in the world population. With that aim, we developed an aptamer-modified tin nanoparticle (SnNP)-based nanoarchitecture as an electrochemical sensor in this study. This platform exhibited a high electron transfer rate with enhanced conductivity arising from its large surface area in comparison to the bare electrode. This observation was explained by the 40-fold higher electroactive surface area of SnNPs@Au, which provided a large space for 1.0 μM AptMDMA (0.68 ± 0.36 × 1012 molecule/cm2) immobilization and yielded a significant electrochemical response in the presence of MDMA. Furthermore, the AptMDMA-modified SnNPs@Au sensing platform proved to be a simple yet ultrasensitive analytical device for MDMA detection in spiked biological and water samples. This novel electrochemical aptasensor showed good linearity in the range of 0.01–1.0 nM for MDMA (R2 = 0.97) with a limit of detection of 0.33 nM and a sensitivity of 0.54 ohm/nM. In addition, the device showed high accuracy and stability along with signal recoveries in the range of 92–96.7% (Relative Standard Deviation, RSD, 1.1–2.18%). In conclusion, the proposed aptasensor developed here is the first to combine SnNPs and aptamers for illicit compound detection, and it offers a reliable platform for recreational drug detection.

Advancing biological investigations using portable sensors for detection of sensitive samples

“…[ 231 ]. Scheme for Nanomaterial-Modified Impedimetric Aptasensor for 3,4-Methylenedioxymethylamphetamine Detection- (b)- Adapted from [ 242 ]. …”

“…Soni et al designed a nanoarchitecture based on aptamer-modified tin nanoparticles (SnNPs) and used it as an electrochemical sensor ( Fig. 4 b) [ 242 ]. Due to its larger surface area in comparison to the unmodified electrode, the platform displayed improved electron transfer and conductivity.…”

“…The sensor showed stability, resulting in signal recoveries of 92–96.7 % (with a Relative Standard Deviation, RSD, of 1.1–2.18 %). This groundbreaking aptasensor, which merges SnNPs and aptamers, introduces a dependable platform for identifying recreational drugs [ 242 ]. In another study, Tseng et al proposed a biomolecular layer with extremely specific binding that allows for the immobilization of antibodies to detect low quantities of MDMA [ 243 ].…”

Multi-Factors Cooperatively Actuated Photonic Hydrogel Aptasensors for Facile, Label-Free and Colorimetric Detection of Lysozyme

“…Among the recognition agents, aptamers, which are single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides, are widely used for constructing sensors due to the simple synthesis, easy modification, high chemical stability and the high specificity and affinity to target analytes [ 14 , 15 ]. The aptamer-based sensors have been developed for detecting various analytes [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], such as metal ions [ 19 , 20 , 21 ], antibiotics [ 22 , 23 ], proteases [ 24 , 25 ] and biomarkers [ 26 ]. Several aptamer-based photonic hydrogel sensors have also been reported.…”