Abstract
Heavy metal pollution has become more and more serious with industrial development and resource exploitation. Because heavy metal ions are difficult to be biodegraded, they accumulate in the human body and cause serious threat to human health. However, the conventional methods to detect heavy metal ions are more strictly to the requirements by detection equipment, sample pretreatment, experimental environment, etc. Aptasensor has the advantages of strong specificity, high sensitivity and simple preparation to detect small molecules, which provides a new direction platform in the detection of heavy metal ions. This paper reviews the selection of aptamers as target for heavy metal ions since the 21th century and aptasensors application for detection of heavy metal ions that were reported in the past five years. Firstly, the selection methods for aptamers with high specificity and high affinity are introduced. Construction methods and research progress on sensor based aptamers as recognition element are also introduced systematically. Finally, the challenges and future opportunities of aptasensors in detecting heavy metal ions are discussed.
Highlights
With development of industry and exploitation of resources, many heavy metal ions enter rivers and soil and cause serious pollution to the environment [1, 2]
The results demonstrated that the aptasensor had good stability and remarkable repeatability under harsh conditions
Based on the P b2+ aptamer, Au nanoparticles composites and polypyrrole (Au@Py), Ding et al [133] established an electrochemical sensor for detection of Pb2+.The Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) of Au@Py composites could increase signal transduction and amplify the current signal when Au@Py modified on the surface of screen-printed electrode
Summary
With development of industry and exploitation of resources, many heavy metal ions enter rivers and soil and cause serious pollution to the environment [1, 2]. Heavy metal ions, especially Pb2+, Cd2+ and Hg+, are widely used detection targets in aptasensors [28], and the common aptamer sensors include optical aptasensors and electrochemical aptasensors, which show wide range of applications [29, 30]. How to select aptamers with high affinity and construct aptamer sensors for rapid and sensitive detection of heavy metal ions has become a longterm research topic [31,32,33].
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