8-Oxo-7,8-dihydro-2′-deoxyguanosine
(8-oxo-dG), an oxidized
form of guanosine residues, is a critical biomarker for various cancers.
Herein, a sensitive citrate-capped gold nanoparticle-based aptasensor
device has been developed for the detection of 8-oxo-dG in urine.
We previously designed a 38-nt anti-8-oxo-dG-aptamer by a computer
simulation and the experimental validation has been performed in the
present work. The analytical performance of the 38-nt aptamer from
the
in silico
design was compared with the parent
66-nt aptamer. This assay is based on the principle of salt-induced
aggregation of citrate-capped gold nanoparticles. Based on this sensing
mechanism, the difference between the absorbance in the presence and
absence of 8-oxo-dG at λ = 525 nm (ΔA525) increased linearly
as a function of 8-oxo-dG concentrations in the ranges of 10–100
and 15–100 nM for 38-nt and 66-nt aptasensors, respectively.
This method can provide detection limits of 6.4 nM for 8-oxo-dG in
the 38-nt aptasensor and 13.2 nM in the 66-nt aptasensor. Similar
to the 66-nt aptamer, the shortened aptamer, 38-nt long, can provide
high sensitivity and selectivity with rapid detection time. In addition,
using the 38-nt aptamer as a recognition component in the developed
portable low-cost device showed high sensitivity in the detection
range of 15–100 nM with a detection limit of 12.9 nM, which
is much lower than the threshold value (280 nM) for normal human urine.
This easy-to-use device could effectively and economically be utilized
for monitoring 8-oxo-dG in real urine samples and potentially serve
as a prototype for a commercial device.