An electrochemical aptasensor based on multi-walled carbon nanotubes loaded with PtCu nanoparticles as signal label for ultrasensitive detection of adenosine

Abstract

Adenosine, as an endogenous nucleoside modulator, plays an important role in heart rate regulation, neurotransmission, and control of the respiratory system and thus it is significantly important to realize its sensitive detection. Herein, a highly sensitive electrochemical aptasensor for adenosine detection was proposed by using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as support matrix loading PtCu nanoparticles (PtCu-MWCNTs) to amplify signal. On one hand, disposable screen-printing gold electrodes (SPGEs) were used as superb sensing base to ensure the stable connection of aptamers 1 (ssDNA1). On the other hand, the PtCu-MWCNTs complex was synthesized through a one-pot method, which not only can precisely control the proportion of metal mass in the product but also exhibited superior electrocatalytic activity towards H2O2. The recognition reactions were achieved by stepwise incubation of ssDNA1, ssDNA2-PtCu-MWCNTs (denoted as ssDNA2-label), and adenosine on the SPGEs. As a result, the constructed electrochemical aptasensor exhibited a wide linear range from 10 nM to 1.0 μM with a low detection limit of 1.0 nM (S/N = 3) for adenosine detection. The aptasensor also successfully realized the adenosine detection in human serum samples, which means that the proposed aptasensor holds a potential application in point-of-care detection.