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Updated: Dec 10, 2025
Phthalic Acid Ester-Binding DNA Aptamer Selection, Characterization, and Application to an Electrochemical Aptasensor
Published on: March 21, 2018
An electrochemical impedimetric sensing platform based on a peptide aptamer identified by high-throughput molecular
Yumin He1, Li Zhou2, Lei Deng3
1Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Nutritional Physiology and Metabolic Process, Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Engineering Laboratory for Pollution Control and Waste Utilization in Livestock and Poultry Production, Hunan Provincial Engineering Research Center for Healthy Livestock and Poultry Production, Scientific Observational and Experimental Station of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science in South-Central, Ministry of Agriculture, Changsha, Hunan 410125, PR China; Animal Nutrition and Human Health Laboratory, College of Life Sciences, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan 410081, PR China.
Abstract:
As a primary building block for protein synthesis, l-arginine (l-Arg) is also a precursor for the synthesis of important metabolites, and is involved in various physiological and pathophysiological processes. l-Arg is a potential biomarker in clinical diagnosis and nutritional status assessment, making it valuable to quantify and monitor this biomolecule. In this study, peptide aptamers that specifically interact with l-Arg were identified by high-throughput molecular docking, and the binding capacities between the synthesized peptide aptamers and l-Arg were then measured by isothermal titration calorimetry. We hypothesized that the peptide aptamer with the greatest binding capacity could be used as the recognition element in a biosensor. A chemosynthetic peptide aptamer modified with mercaptan and spacer units (thioctic acid-GGGG-FGHIHEGY) was thus used to construct label-free electrochemical impedimetric biosensors for l-Arg based on gold electrodes. The optimum biosensor showed good sensitivity to l-Arg with a linear range of 0.1 pM-0.1 mM, and the calculated limit of detection (three times the signal-to-noise ratio) was 0.01 pM. Interference studies and assays of diluted serum samples were also carried out, and satisfactory results obtained. In conclusion, a potential method of peptide aptamer screening and biosensor fabrication for detecting small biological molecules was demonstrated.
