Label-free aptasensor for the ultrasensitive detection of insulin via a synergistic fluorescent turn-on strategy based on G-quadruplex and AIEgens

Abstract

Abstract Insulin, the only hormone regulating blood glucose level, is strongly associated with diabetes and its complications. Specific recognition and ultrasensitive detection of insulin are of clinical significance for the early diagnosis and treatment of diabetes. Inspired by aggregation-induced emission, we presented a turn-on label-free fluorescence aptasensor for insulin detection. Quaternized tetraphenylethene salt was synthesized as the fluorescence probe, guanine-rich aptamer IGA3 was selected as recognition element, and graphene oxide was chosen as the quencher. Under optimized conditions, the fluorescence aptasensor displayed a wide linear range (1.0 pM–1.0 µM) with a low limit of detection (0.42 pM). Furthermore, the aptasensor was successfully applied to detect insulin in human serum. Spiked recoveries were obtained in the range of 96.06–104.26%. All these results demonstrated that the proposed approach has potential application in the clinical diagnostics of diabetes.