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A Sandwich-type Lateral Flow Strip Using a Split, Single Aptamer for Point-of-Care Detection of Cocaine

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Abstract

The sandwich-type lateral flow assays relying on dual aptamers with high sensitivity and specificity have been broadly explored. However, it is unlikely to match a pair of specific aptamers that can bind a small molecular target (e.g., cocaine) simultaneously due to the steric hindrance. In response, we herein introduced the strategy of “one divides into two” into the construction of sandwich-type lateral flow strip assay (LFSA). Specifically, we split a single cocaine-recognizing aptamer into two segments, either of which was conjugated with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) or labeled with biotin, serving as signal probe and capture probe, respectively. Upon the presence of the target molecule, a ternary sandwich complex comprised of the two halves of the aptamer and the target formed. Such sandwich-type LFSA exhibited an excellent nonlinear logarithmic response in the range from 10 μmol/L to 5 mmol/L with R2 = 0.9994. The sensitive on-site detection of cocaine in artificial biological samples including urine and sweat was achieved within 15 min, with the visual limit of detection as low as 50 μmol/L for urine and 200 μmol/L for sweat, and the recovery rates of 83.6–107.4%.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22090050, 22122410, 21874121), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFE0206900), Hubei Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (2020CFA037), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LD21B050001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, Engineering Research Center of Nano-Geomaterials of Ministry of Education, Faculty of Materials Science and Chemistry, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Le Jing, Chong-Yu Xie, Qian-Qian Li, Mei-Qing Yang, Hui Li, Fan Xia & Shao-Guang Li

  2. Hubei University of Police, Wuhan, 430034, China

    Hui-Fang Yao

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  1. Le Jing
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  2. Chong-Yu Xie
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Correspondence to Shao-Guang Li.

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Jing, L., Xie, CY., Li, QQ. et al. A Sandwich-type Lateral Flow Strip Using a Split, Single Aptamer for Point-of-Care Detection of Cocaine. J. Anal. Test. 6, 120–128 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41664-022-00228-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41664-022-00228-w

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