Background:
Molecular logic gate always used fluorescent dyes to realize fluorescence signal. The labeling of the fluorophore is relatively expensive, low yield and singly labeled impuritiesaffects the affinity between the target and the aptamer. Label-free fluorescent aptamer biosensor strategy has attracted widespread interest due to lower cost and simple.
Objective:
Herein, we have designed a AND logic gate fluorescent aptasensor for detecting carbohydrate antigen 15-3(CA15-3) based on label-free fluorescence signal output.
Materials and Methods:
A hairpin DNA probe consists of CA15-3 aptamer and partly anti-CA15-3 aptamer sequences as a long stem and G-rich sequences of the middle ring as a quadruplex-forming oligomer. G-rich sequences can fold into a quadruplex by K+, and then G-quadruplex interacts specifically with N-methylmesoporphyrin IX(NMM), leading to a dramatic increase in fluorescence of NMM. With CA15-3 and NMM as the two inputs, the fluorescence intensity of the NMM is the output signal. Lacking of CA15-3 or NMM, there is no significant fluorescence enhancing, and the output of the signal is “0”. The fluorescence signal was dramatically increasing and the output of the signal is “1” only when CA15-3 protein and NMM were added at the same time.
Results:
This biosensor strategy possessed selectivity, high sensitivity for detecting CA15-3 protein from 10 to 500 U mL-1 and the detection limit was 10 U mL-1, and also showed good reproducibility in spiked human serum.
Conclusion:
In summary, the proposed AND logic gate fluorescent aptasensor could specifically detect CA15-3.
