Indirect Competitive Determination of Tetracycline Residue in Honey Using an Ultrasensitive Gold-Nanoparticle-Linked Aptamer Assay

Abstract

Tetracycline residue in honey has become an increasingly important food safety problem. In this work, an ultrasensitive gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)-linked aptamer assay was developed to determine the tetracycline residue in honey. First, a tetracycline–bovine serum albumin conjugate coating was applied to a microplate. Then, with the incubation of AuNPs-linked aptamer, the fixed tetracycline in the microplate competed for the limited aptamer with the free tetracycline in the sample. Higher amounts of free tetracycline in the sample were associated with more competitive binding of aptamer-AuNPs, and the aptamer-AuNPs binding with tetracycline-BSA was lower. Finally, as a kind of nanozyme, AuNPs exhibited peroxidase activity and oxidized 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine, transforming it from colorless to blue, and achieving the measurement at 652 nm. The analytical performance—including linearity, limit of detection, selectivity, precision, repeatability, and accuracy—has been investigated. It was successfully applied to the determination of tetracycline in honey samples with high accuracy and sensitivity.

Advances in Gold Nanoparticles-Based Colorimetric Aptasensors for the Detection of Antibiotics: An Overview of the Past Decade

“…Concurrently, TET aptamer-labeled AuNPs (TET apt-AuNPs) were prepared. In this way, a novel competitive TET detection sensor for honey was developed based on greater catalysis ability of AuNPs and higher aptamer selectivity ( Figure 6 C) [ 89 ].…”

“…( C ). Illustration of the proposed gold nanoparticle-linked competition-based aptamer assay (Reproduced with permission from [ 89 ] © 2020 MDPI).…”

“…Easy-to-build, selective, sensitive and fast detection. Easy realization of material preparation, high selectivity, low detection threshold and high stability of batches [ 89 ].…”

Regulation Mechanism of ssDNA Aptamer in Nanozymes and Application of Nanozyme-Based Aptasensors in Food Safety

“…Thus, an indirect competitive enzyme-linked aptamer assay (ELAA) was developed for detecting tetracycline residues based on the peroxidase-like activity of AuNPs and one aptamer. The study achieved a LOD of 2.7 nM [ 110 ]. The tetracycline with a known concentration immobilized on the microplate competed with target tetracycline in honey to bind aptamer-modified AuNPs.…”

Visual detection of tropomyosin, a major shrimp allergenic protein using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)-assisted colorimetric aptasensor

“…To fabricate AuNPs-based colorimetric aptasensors, several researchers have already exploited the potencies of both AuNPs and aptamers revealing numerous advantages (e.g., simple detection, high selectivity, sensitivity, and outstanding throughput) (António et al 2020;Chen et al 2020;Gao et al 2020;Lee et al 2019;Ma et al 2018;Sheng et al 2020;Wu et al 2012;Xu et al 2020) . By integrating AuNPs and aptamers to construct colorimetric-based sensor arrays based on the principles of a study published by Wei et al (2007), we developed a simple, rapid, naked eye detection method for seafood allergenic proteins, such as TM.…”