Ultrasensitive DNAzyme‐Based Ca2+ Detection Boosted by Ethanol and a Solvent‐Compatible Scaffold for Aptazyme Design

Functional DNA includes aptamers and DNAzymes, and metal ions are often important for achieving the chemical functions of such DNA. Biosensors based on functional DNA have mainly been tested in aqueous buffers. By introducing organic solvents with much lower dielectric constants, the interaction bet...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chembiochem : a European journal of chemical biology 2018-01, Vol.19 (1), p.31-36
Main Authors: Yu, Tianmeng, Zhou, Wenhu, Liu, Juewen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adenosine monophosphate
AMP
Aptamers
Biosensors
Calcium
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNAzymes
electrostatic interactions
Ethanol
Metal ions
Organic solvents
Proteins
solvent effects
Solvents
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Summary:Functional DNA includes aptamers and DNAzymes, and metal ions are often important for achieving the chemical functions of such DNA. Biosensors based on functional DNA have mainly been tested in aqueous buffers. By introducing organic solvents with much lower dielectric constants, the interaction between metal ions and DNA can be significantly enhanced, and this might affect the performance of DNA‐based biosensors. In this work, the effect of ethanol on the activity of the EtNa DNAzyme was studied for Ca2+ detection. With 30 % ethanol, the sensor has a detection limit of 1.4 μm Ca2+, which is a 16‐fold improvement relative to that in water. This EtNa DNAzyme is unique because other tested DNAzymes are all inhibited by 50 % ethanol. Finally, by using the EtNa DNAzyme as a scaffold, the adenosine monophosphate (AMP) aptamer was inserted to construct an aptazyme, which allowed the measurement of AMP in ethanol. In summary, this study has reported the most sensitive DNA‐based sensor for Ca2+, and its sensitivity and selectivity can approach those of proteins or small‐molecule ligands. This work also provides a way to measure aptamer binding in organic solvents. Alcoholic ion biosensor: Metal ions are often important for achieving the chemical functions DNAzymes. Generally, biosensors based on this functional DNA are tested in aqueous buffers, but introducing organic solvents can enhance the interaction between metal ions and DNA. The EtNa DNAzyme is highly sensitive to low concentrations of Ca2+ in ethanol as a cosolvent.
ISSN:1439-4227
1439-7633
DOI:10.1002/cbic.201700498