Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 24, 2026
Phthalic Acid Ester-Binding DNA Aptamer Selection, Characterization, and Application to an Electrochemical Aptasensor
Published on: March 21, 2018
Selection of DNA aptamers against polychlorinated biphenyls as potential biorecognition elements for environmental
Shengmin Xu1, Hang Yuan, Shaopeng Chen
1Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bioengineering, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui 230031, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been of major concerns for decades due to their potential toxicity to human health. To trace the PCBs efficiently and sensitively, many detection methods have been developed. Aptamers, a new class of diagnostic tools, are considered to be such additional candidates for detection of pollutants. In the current study, we report the DNA aptamers, isolated by FluMag-SELEX (a modified SELEX [systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment] technology), that recognize PCBs with the dissociation constants (Kd values) down to the micromolar range. Using the selected aptamers, a highly sensitive aptamer-based fluorescent assay for detection of PCBs was established using gold nanoparticles, with a widely linear range from 0.1 to 100 ng/ml. Moreover, our aptamer-based gold nanoprobe displays specificity toward 3,3',4,4'-tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB77) compared with a few common PCB77 structural analogs. These results open the possibility of using aptamers as biorecognition elements for easy and fast environmental monitoring.
