Label-free cocaine aptasensor based on a long-period fiber grating

In this Letter, we combined a promising bioreceptor, a cocaine aptamer MN6, with an ultrasensitive optical platform long-period fiber grating (LPFG) to create a new cocaine biosensor. The cocaine induces a conformational rearrangement of the aptamer which changes the refractive index around the LPFG producing a measurable shift of the transmission spectrum. We were able to track subtle interaction between the receptor and cocaine molecules over a concentration range of 25 to 100 μM. The presented biosensor does not require labeling or signal enhancement, resulting in a simple user-friendly device.