Abstract
Small molecules are ubiquitous in nature and their detection is relevant in various domains. However, due to their size, sensitive and selective probes are difficult to select and the detection methods are generally indirect. In this study, we introduced the use of melting curve analysis of aptachains based on split-aptamers for the detection of adenosine. Aptamers, short oligonucleotides, are known to be particularly efficient probes compared to antibodies thanks to their advantageous probe/target size ratio. Aptachains are formed from dimers with dangling ends followed by the split-aptamer binding triggered by the presence of the target. The high melting temperature of the dimers served as a calibration for the detection/quantification of the target based on the height and/or temperature shift of the aptachain melting peak.
Highlights
The detection of small molecules plays an important role in various fields like food safety, environmental control, diagnosis, etc. [1,2,3,4,5]
Split-aptamers are obtained from the original anti-adenosine hairpin aptamer
A 24-mer Zip sequence was added to the 30 end of the split-aptamer while its complementary sequence was added to the other half of the split aptamer couple in order to induce dimer formation at high temperature
Summary
The detection of small molecules plays an important role in various fields like food safety, environmental control, diagnosis, etc. [1,2,3,4,5]. Antibodies, the most commonly used probes in biosensors, are generally difficult to raise against such small targets, i.e., with molecular weight lower than 1000 Da. On the other hand, aptamers, single stranded oligonucleotides selected against their target by the Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX) method, are interesting alternative probes [6,7]. In the particular case of small molecule detection, the advantages of aptamers over antibodies are even more crucial [14,15,16,17,18,19]. Due to their reversible folding in a particular 3D conformation, they exhibit a binding pocket with strong affinity and selectivity towards small targets while the large size of antibodies compared to the targets confers them a comparative disadvantage
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
