Development of Aptamer-based Sensors for Sensitive and Specific Detection of Fentanyl Opioids

Thursday, March 11, 2021: 8:30 AM - 9:05 AM

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Description

The synthetic opioid fentanyl and its structural analogs have become the leading cause of drug overdose deaths in the United States. Aptamers are single-stranded DNA/RNA molecules that bind to specific target molecules with high affinity. Aptamers have several advantageous properties for biosensing, such as high chemical stability, ease of synthesis, low cost, and minimal batch-to-batch variation. The nature of the SELEX process allows close control over isolating aptamers that have the requisite affinity and specificity for a certain application. Here, we have developed fluorescence and electrochemical aptamer-based sensors based on newly isolated DNA aptamers which broadly cross react to fentanyl and its analogs and have minimal binding to molecules outside of the family. We performed the library-immobilized SELEX technique using the targets fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl, and furanyl fentanyl and identified 28 new DNA aptamers that bind to a family of fentanyl(s). Using our recently developed exonuclease digestion assay, we profiled the binding properties of these aptamers against 16 members of the fentanyl family and 19 interferent compounds commonly encountered in seized substances. From this screen, we identified three high-performance aptamers that have fentanyl-binding affinities of 10–2000 nM and high specificity against non-target interferents. We utilized one of these aptamers to construct an electrochemical-based aptamer sensor, which could detect as low as 1% by weight fentanyl or its analogs in interferent-ridden mixtures. In addition, using a combination of three aptamers, we fabricated a fluorescence sensor capable of detecting fentanyl and its analogs at concentrations which span three orders of magnitude (0.3–300 µM).

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Additional Info

Keywords: Please select up to 4 keywords ONLY:
Fluorescence and Luminescence,Nucleic Acids