title: A universal strategy for aptamer-based nanopore sensing through host-guest interactions inside α-hemolysin.
abstract: Nanopore emerged as a powerful single-molecule technique over the past two decades, and has shown applications in the stochastic sensing and biophysical studies of individual molecules. Here, we report a versatile strategy for nanopore sensing by employing the combination of aptamers and host-guest interactions. An aptamer is first hybridized with a DNA probe which is modified with a ferrocene⊂cucurbit[7]uril complex. The presence of analytes causes the aptamer-probe duplex to unwind and release the DNA probe which can quantitatively produce signature current events when translocated through an α-hemolysin nanopore. The integrated use of magnetic beads can further lower the detection limit by approximately two to three orders of magnitude. Because aptamers have shown robust binding affinities with a wide variety of target molecules, our proposed strategy should be universally applicable for sensing different types of analytes with nanopore sensors.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials & Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China).
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials & Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China).
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials & Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China).
authors.forename: Yuru
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials & Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China).
authors.forename: Jiani
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for Biomedical Effects of Nanomaterials & Nanosafety, Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China). haichenwu@ihep.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Hai-Chen
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide / Q000737:chemistry*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D058608:Nanopores; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D052157:Aptamers, Nucleotide; D006460:Hemolysin Proteins
keywords: aptamers; host-guest systems; magnetic beads; nanopore sensors; quantitative determination