Abstract
Saxitoxin (STX) belongs to the family of marine biological toxins, which are major contaminants in seafood. The reference methods for STX detection are mouse bioassay and chromatographic analysis, which are time-consuming, high costs, and requirement of sophisticated operation. Therefore, the development of alternative methods for STX analysis is urgent. Electrochemical analysis is a fast, low-cost, and sensitive method for biomolecules analysis. Thus, in this study, an electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor (EIS) sensor based on aptamer-modified two-dimensional layered Ti3C2Tx nanosheets was developed for STX detection. The high surface area and rich functional groups of MXene benefited the modification of aptamer, which had specific interactions with STX. Capacitance-voltage (C-V) and constant-capacitance (ConCap) measurement results indicated that the aptasensor was able to detect STX with high sensitivity and good specificity. The detection range was 1.0 nM to 200 nM and detection limit was as low as 0.03 nM. Moreover, the aptasensor was found to have a good selectivity and two-week stability. The mussel tissue extraction test suggested the potential application of this biosensor in detecting STX in real samples. This method provides a convenient approach for low-cost, rapid, and label-free detection of marine biological toxins.
Highlights
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins are shellfish toxins synthesized by microscopic dinoflagellates [1,2]
Electrochemical analysis with functional nanomaterials could be a potential solution [16]. Bioactive materials, such as nucleic acid and antigen-antibody combined with electrochemical detectors, were developed for biomolecule detection with convenient operation, high sensitivity, and good specificity [17]
In MXene-Aptamer, these two parameters were able to lead to a change in surface charge in MXene and the insulating layer, which was reflected by the capacitance change (Scheme 1)
Summary
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins are shellfish toxins synthesized by microscopic dinoflagellates [1,2]. Respective advantages in sensitivity and specificity have been achieved by these methods, there are some challenges: for example, HPLC and LCMS need sophisticated equipment and complex pre-treatments [13,14], and ELISA requires tedious lab work [15]. To address these challenges, electrochemical analysis with functional nanomaterials could be a potential solution [16]. Electrochemical analysis with functional nanomaterials could be a potential solution [16] Bioactive materials, such as nucleic acid and antigen-antibody combined with electrochemical detectors, were developed for biomolecule detection with convenient operation, high sensitivity, and good specificity [17]. Aptamer has been widely used in many fields, including biomolecule detection [20,21,22] and cell analysis [23]
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