Highly sensitive detection of 25-HydroxyvitaminD₃ by using a target-induced displacement of aptamer

For the prevention of 25-HydroxyvitaminD₃ deficiency, in this study, aptamers which can bind to 25-HydroxyvitaminD₃ with high specificity and affinity, were successfully developed by using immobilization-free, graphene oxide-based systemic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (GO-SELEX) method. The 9 sequences including VDBA14 aptamer were obtained out of 16 aptamer candidates, based on the specificity and affinity of the aptamers confirmed by both the gold nanoparticles (AuNPs)-based colorimetric assay and the isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) method. Among them, the aptamer, VDBA14, developed in this study was found to show a great affinity to 25-HydroxyvitaminD₃, with 11nM of its Kd value. Moreover, the circular dichroism (CD) analysis data indicated the target-induced displacement of the aptamer VDBA14clearly. In addition, this target-induced change of the aptamer was also confirmed again by conducting two different experimental formats, the use of streptavidin-coated 96-well plates and the use of magnetic beads. The results clearly indicated that the structure of VDBA14 aptamer was changed upon the binding of the target, 25-HydroxyvitaminD₃, and so the indicator sequences (partially complementary to the aptamer sequence) tagged with an enzyme as a signaling molecule could be de-hybridized from the aptamer. Finally, the limit of detection for vitamin D based on AuNPs-based colorimetric assay using VDBA14 aptamer was found to be 1µM. All these results were taken together, the aptamer which was developed could play an exquisite role in the fields of early medical diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency with accurate, rapid and simple analytical method.