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The discovery of in-vitro systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) process has considerably broaden the utility of aptamer as bio-recognition element, providing the high binding affinity and specificity against the target analytes. Recent research has focused on the development of structure switching signaling aptamer assay, transducing the aptamer- target recognition event into an easily detectable signal. In this paper, we demonstrate the development of structure switching aptamer assay for determination of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) employing the quenching-dequenching mechanism. Hybridization of fluorescein labelled anti-AFM1 aptamer (F-aptamer) with TAMRA labelled complementary sequences (Q-aptamer) brings the fluorophore and the quencher into close proximity, which results in maximum fluorescence quenching. On addition of AFM1, the target induced conformational formation of antiparallel G-quadruplex aptamer-AFM1 complex results in fluorescence recovery. Under optimized experimental conditions, the developed method showed the good linearity with limit of detection (LOD) at 5.0ngkg(-1) for AFM1. The specificity of the sensing platform was carefully investigated against aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and ochratoxin A (OTA). The developed assay platform showed the high specificity towards AFM1. The practical application of the developed aptamer assay was verified for detection of AFM1 in spiked milk samples. Good recoveries were obtained in the range from 94.40% to 95.28% (n=3) from AFM1 spiked milk sample., (Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Lipase activity against triacylglycerols has been measured using an amperometric enzyme biosensor based on glycerol dehydrogenase/NADH oxidase. A Prussian Blue modified screen-printed electrode was selected as substrate for the two immobilised-enzyme systems due to their higher operative stability reported in previous works. Various parameters such as cofactor (flavin mononucleotide FMN) concentration (1 mM), NAD+ coenzyme concentration (2 mM), pH effect (phosphate buffer pH 6 to 8, Tris buffer pH 8-10) response time and storage stability were evaluated and optimised. The glycerol biosensor was then investigated for lipase activity. The system was challenged against an olive or sunflower oil real samples in order to detect fatty acids and the results were compared with those provided either by the manufacture or reference methods with good agreement.