Developing a Sensitive Method for the Electrochemical Determination of Tetracycline Using MB-Tagged Aptamers on Gold Electrode Substrates

Abstract

An electrochemical aptasensor for the detection of tetracycline (TET) is prepared based on a methylene blue (MB)-tagged DNA aptamer, with the sequence 5′-MB-CCC CCG GCA GGC CAC GGC TTG GGTTGG TCC CAC TGC GCG-thiol-3′. The DNA aptamer is chemisorbed on a gold electrode and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) is utilized for the detection. In particular, upon binding of the TET with the purpose-designed aptamer, there is an increase in the current intensity, as a result of the increased proximity of the MB molecule to the gold surface. The sensor is tested using aqueous samples spiked with TET concentrations between 1 and 1000 nM and a limit of detection (LOD) of 1.2 nM is determined. Furthermore, the dissociation constant is estimated to be 1.4 nM using a Lineweaver–Burk plot.

Keywords

• biosensors
• methylene blue
• aptamer
• tetracycline
• electrochemical detection