An aptamer-based lateral flow assay using flower-like MoS₂@Au for the rapid detection of aflatoxin B₁ in maize

Aptamer-based lateral flow assays (LFAs) have achieved significant interest for their rapid, convenient, and on-site detectability. However, their utility is often constrained by low sensitivity. A signal amplification-based test strip was developed in this investigation to address this limitation, employing flower-like molybdenum disulfide nanocomposites and substituting aptamers for antibodies as target recognition molecules in conventional strips. The abundant SS bonds in flower-like molybdenum disulfide can form AuS coupling with gold nanoparticles. At the same time, flower-like molybdenum disulfide has a substantial specific surface area that can provide a large number of binding sites for colloidal gold, thereby enhancing complementary chain loading to amplify the signal and improve sensitivity. Under the optimized experiment, the aptamer test strip exhibited a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.2 ng/mL, a detection range of 0.2-200 ng/mL. The recoveries of spiked maize samples ranged from 99.4 % - 109.4 %, with relative standard deviations (RSD) between 3.2 % -10.1 %. This flower-like MoS₂@Au-based aptasensor shows great promise for detecting AFB₁, offering wide-ranging potential for real-world use.