Rapid nanomolar detection of methamphetamine in biofluids via a reagentless electrochemical aptamer-based biosensor

Abstract

The availability of sensing platforms able to rapidly measure abused drugs directly in biological fluids in a single step would allow performing drugged driving screening on the site. The achievement of this goal is extremely important for preventing and controlling drug abuse and crime incidence. Motived by this, we constructed a simple, cost-effective and reagentless electrochemical aptamer-based (EAB) sensor with methamphetamine (MAMP) as the target molecule. This EAB sensor produced a nanomolar level of detection accuracy in unprocessed or minimally processed bio-samples. Specifically, circular dichroic spectrum was used to confirm that the truncated aptamer from the original sequence would undergo large binding-induced conformational changes. We then engineered the aptamer to work in the EAB platform and the resulting sensor enabled sensitive and specific detection of MAMP with the detection limit of 30 nM in undiluted serum, 50 nM in undiluted urine and 20 nM in 50% saliva. The sensor has good recovery rate, implying this method has good reliability and repeatability. The detection limit is far below the clinical detection threshold, it would be hopefully used for preliminary screening of drugged driving in real world.