Abstract
Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the most common mycotoxins in grains, causing gastrointestinal inflammation, neurotoxicity, hepatotoxicity and embryotoxicity, even at a low quantity. In this study, a facile electrochemical aptasensor was established for the rapid and sensitive determination of DON based on a multifunctional N-doped Cu-metallic organic framework (N–Cu–MOF) nanomaterial. The N–Cu–MOF, with a large specific surface area and good electrical conductivity, served not only as an optimal electrical signal probe but also as an effective supporting substrate for stabilizing aptamers through the interactions of amino (-NH2) and copper. Under the optimal conditions, the proposed sensor provided a wide linear concentration range of 0.02–20 ng mL−1 (R2 = 0.994), showing high sensitivity, with a lower detection limit of 0.008 ng mL−1, and good selectivity. The sensor’s effectiveness was also verified in real spiked wheat samples with satisfactory recoveries of 95.6–105.9%. The current work provides a flexible approach for the rapid and sensitive analysis of highly toxic DON in food samples and may also be easily extended to detect other hazardous substances with alternative target-recognition aptamers.
Highlights
Deoxynivalenol (DON), a toxic secondary metabolite produced by the Fusarium genus, is one of the most frequently found mycotoxins in various foodstuffs, wheat
A wide range of chromatographic approaches has been established for the detection of DON, including gas chromatography (GC) [6], high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) [7] and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS) [8,9]
Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) was employed to confirm the interactions between AP1 and N–Cu–metallic organic framework (MOF) (Figure 2E)
Summary
Deoxynivalenol (DON), a toxic secondary metabolite produced by the Fusarium genus, is one of the most frequently found mycotoxins in various foodstuffs, wheat. A wide range of chromatographic approaches has been established for the detection of DON, including gas chromatography (GC) [6], high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) [7] and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC–MS) [8,9] These methods are highly sensitive, accurate, and reliable. N–Cu–MOF was used as an effective supporting material, which facilitated accommodation with a large number of aptamers, greatly improving the stability and the selectivity, and served as an electrochemical probe with excellent electrical signals, significantly enhancing the sensitivity of the established sensor. The bands in the regions of 3100–3800 cm−1 and 729–761 cm−1 were assigned to the OH-bond stretching of the surface’s active carbon and the phenyl C-H bending, respectively All of these results matched well with those of reported HKUST-1 cry4sotfa1l1s [27,29], demonstrating the successful preparation of N–Cu–MOF.
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