Online specific recognition of mycotoxins using aptamer-grafted ionic affinity monolith with mixed-mode mechanism

Herein, a facile and practical aptamer-grafted ionic affinity monolith with mixed-mode mechanism was explored as a versatile platform for online specific recognition of polar and non-polar mycotoxins. The mixed-mode mechanism including molecular affinity adsorption (between aptamers and targets), hydrophilic interaction and ionic interaction (between stationary phase and targets) were adopted and provided a better flexibility in adjusting separation selectivity to reduce nonspecific adsorption with respect to the single mode. Preparation and characterization of aptamer-based affinity monoliths were investigated, The characterization of pore size distribution, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area and the specificity and cross-reaction were also evaluated. As a result, the hydrophilic nature and negative charge on affinity monolith were obtained. Multiple interactions including aptamer affinity binding, hydrophilic interaction (HI) and ion exchange (IE) could be adopted for online selective extraction. Specific recognitions of polar ochratoxin A (OTA), non-polar zearalenone (ZEN) and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) was fulfilled with LODs as 0.03, 0.05 and 0.05 μg/L, respectively. Applied to real cereals, good recoveries of the fortified OTA, AFB1 and ZEN were achieved as 92.6 ± 1.3% ~ 95.6 ± 1.3% (n=3), 93.9 ± 2.3% ~ 98.2 ± 3.4% (n=3) and 92.7 ± 2.0% ~ 96.9 ± 3.5% (n=3) in corn, wheat and rice, respectively. The results displayed that Apt-MCs with hydrophilic and ionic interaction mixed-mode mechanism were efficient enough and competent for the online recognition of mycotoxins in cereals.