Graphene Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer Aptasensor for the Thrombin Detection

摘要

Combining nanomaterials and biomolecule recognitionnunits is promising in developing novel clinic diagnosticnand protein analysis techniques. In this work, a highlynsensitive and specific fluorescence resonance energyntransfer (FRET) aptasensor for thrombin detection isndeveloped based on the dye labeled aptamer assembledngraphene. Due to the noncovalent assembly betweennaptamer and graphene, fluorescence quenching of the dyentakes place because of FRET. The addition of thrombinnleads to the fluorescence recovery due to the formationnof quadruplex-thrombin complexes which have weaknaffinity to graphene and keep the dyes away from graphenensurface. Because of the high fluorescence quenchingnefficiency, unique structure, and electronic properties ofngraphene, the graphene aptasensor exhibits extraordinarilynhigh sensitivity and excellent specificity in both buffernand blood serum. A detection limit as low as 31.3 pM isnobtained based on the graphene FRET aptasensor, whichnis two orders magnitude lower than those of fluorescentnsensors based on carbon nanotubes. The excellent performancenof FRET aptasensor based on graphene will alsonbe ascribed to the unique structure and electronic propertiesnof graphene.