A novel fluorescent aptasensor based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles for the selective detection of sulfadiazine in edible tissue

Sulfadiazine (SDZ) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections in animals, and SDZ residues in food can be harmful to human health. As a result, an aptasensor based on silica nanoparticles was developed for the rapid detection of SDZ. An aptamer that specifically binds to SDZ was obtained using graphene oxide-SELEX and further truncated to a 13 nt sequence (SDZ30-1:5′-AACCCAATGGGAT-3′), which has a high affinity (K_d = 65.72 nM). In addition, it was found by molecular simulation that a steric hindrance could prevent the target molecule from entering the binding pocket formed by the key base “TGG”, which affects the total binding free energy of SDZ30-1 and the target molecule, thereby affecting the affinity of SDZ30-1 to the target. The SDZ30-1 was selected as the fluorescent probe to establish an aptasensor for the detection of SDZ residues in milk and honey. The aptasensor exhibited a wide dynamic linear range (3.125 – 100 ng/mL) and a limit of detection (LOD = 1.68 ng/mL). The aptasensor in spiked samples recovered at a rate of 95.12 – 105.47%, with a coefficient of variation of less than 13.18 %. The results of aptasensor were positively correlated with those of HPLC (R² > 0.8687). Based on the above results, it could be inferred that the aptasensor can be used sensitively and rapidly for the detection of SDZ residues in edible tissue.