Comparison of Optical and Electrical Sensor Characteristics for Efficient Analysis of Attachment and Detachment of Aptamer

Abstract

Nucleic acid aptamer-based research has focused on achieving the highest performance for bioassays. However, there are limitations in evaluating the affinity for the target analytes in these nucleic acid aptamer-based bioassays. In this study, we mainly propose graphene oxide (GO)-based electrical and optical analyses to efficiently evaluate the affinity between an aptamer and its target. We found that an aptamer-coupled GO-based chip with an electrical resistance induced by a field-effect transistor, with aptamers as low as 100 pM, can detect the target, thrombin, at yields as low as 250 pM within five minutes. In the optical approach, the fluorescent dye-linked aptamer, as low as 100 nM, was efficiently used with GO, enabling the sensitive detection of thrombin at yields as low as 5 nM. The cantilever type of mechanical analysis also demonstrated the intuitive aptamer–thrombin reaction in the signal using dBm units. Finally, a comparison of electrical and optical sensors’ characteristics was introduced in the attachment and detachment of aptamer to propose an efficient analysis that can be utilized for various aptamer-based research fields.

Keywords

• aptamer
• graphene oxide
• field-effect transistor
• fluorescence quenching
• cantilever-integrated waveguide
• thrombin detection