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Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi that contaminate agriculture products. Their release in the environment can cause severe damage to human health. Aptasensors are compact analytical devices that are intended for the fast and reliable detection of various species able to specifically interact with aptamers attached to the transducer surface. In this review, assembly of electrochemical and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) aptasensors are considered with emphasis on the mechanism of signal generation. Moreover, the properties of mycotoxins and the aptamers selected for their recognition are briefly considered. The analytical performance of bio-sensors developed within last three years makes it possible to determine mycotoxin residues in water and agriculture/food products on the levels below their maximal admissible concentrations. Requirements for the development of sample treatment and future trends in aptasensors are also discussed. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Funding: T.K. acknowledges funding by the subsidy allocated to Kazan Federal University for the state assignment in the sphere of scientific activities (grant No 0671–2020−0063). T.H. acknowledges funding from the Science Grant Agency VEGA, project No.: 1/0419/20.

Carbon nanomaterials offer unique opportunities for the assembling of electrochemical aptasensors due to their high electroconductivity, redox activity, compatibility with biochemical receptors and broad possibilities of functionalization and combination with other auxiliary reagents. In this review, the progress in the development of electrochemical aptasensors based on carbon nanomaterials in 2016–2020 is considered with particular emphasis on the role of carbon materials in aptamer immobilization and signal generation. The synthesis and properties of carbon nanotubes, graphene materials, carbon nitride, carbon black particles and fullerene are described and their implementation in the electrochemical biosensors are summarized. Examples of electrochemical aptasensors are classified in accordance with the content of the surface layer and signal measurement mode. In conclusion, the drawbacks and future prospects of carbon nanomaterials’ application in electrochemical aptasensors are briefly discussed. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. R.S. acknowledges support of the state subsidy in the sphere of scientific activity for Kazan Federal University (proposal No 0671-2020-0063). T.H. acknowledges funding from the Science Grant Agency VEGA, project No.: 1/0419/20.

We performed a comparative analysis of the sensitivity of aptamer-based biosensors for detection mycotoxin aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) depending on the method of immobilization of DNA aptamers and method of the detection. Label-free electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) for ferrocene labeled neutravidin layers were used for this purpose. Amino-modified DNA aptamers have been immobilized at the surface of polyamidoamine dendrimers (PAMAM) of fourth generation (G4) or biotin-modified aptamers were immobilized at the neutravidin layer chemisorbed at gold surface. In the first case the limit of detection (LOD) has been determined as 8.47 ng/L. In the second approach the LOD was similar 8.62 ng/L, which is below of allowable limits of AFM1 in milk and milk products. The aptasensors were validated in a spiked milk samples with good recovery better than 78%. Comparative analysis of the sensitivity of immuno-and aptasensors was also performed and showed comparable sensitivity. © 2018 by the authors.

© 2016 Elsevier B.V.We report the effect of various factors such as oligonucleotide sequence, buffer composition, ionic strength for optimal determination of cytochrome c (cyt c) by DNA aptamer sensors using thickness shear mode acoustics (TSM) and electrochemical methods. Up to now, several DNA aptamers specific to cyt c have been selected and used in various sensing approaches including optical, electrochemical and mass sensitive transducers. We have analyzed the response of three different aptamers immobilized via biotin-neutravidin method on a gold support by TSM technique. Using this approach we have shown that only 76-length base sequence (apt 76) exhibited specific binding to cyt c with detection limit of 0.50 ± 0.05 nM. This aptamer was then studied under different ionic conditions showing an optimal response for HEPES buffer. Apt 76 based sensor has been also examined by electrochemical methods. However due to the electroactive nature of cyt c, the response of this aptamer was less favorable in comparison with TSM. The apt 76 based sensor was tested also in spiked samples of human plasma by TSM achieving a recovery of 92 ± 6.6% for 1 nM cyt c.

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. DNA sensors based on oligonucleotides and aptamers immobilized using electropolymerization and layer-by-layer assembling are reviewed. The conditions of electropolymerization and the role of electrosynthesized layers are considered for polyaniline, polypyrrole, polythiophene, polyphenazines and their derivatives with particular attention to immobilization of bioreceptors and signal detection principles. The performance of DNA sensors for hybridization detection and for the determination of low-molecular intercalators and DNA damaging factors is reviewed. Besides, the composition of polyelectrolyte complexes utilizing DNA receptors are considered depending on the analyte nature and functions of polyionic components and auxiliary reagents used for surface layer coatings.

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. In this work we report the detection of plasmin protease by means of the thickness shear mode (TSM) acoustic method. The biorecognition element consists of a peptide substrate (PS) specific to plasmin immobilized on a piezoelectric quartz crystal electrode. After enzymatic reaction with plasmin, it cleaves a short fragment of the peptide causing increase in the resonance frequency of the piezo crystal. Plasmin was detected in the range of concentrations 1-20 nM, a target interval in which its presence presumably affects the quality of milk. The PS exhibited negligible response against to similar protease trypsin. This has been confirmed also by electrochemical detection method. Limit of detection of this acoustic transducer was found to be 0.65 nM. Formation of the sensing surface and kinetic effect of plasmin on the peptide substrate was studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The PS response was also validated in pretreated milk samples spiked by known concentrations of plasmin achieving an average recovery of 63 ± 0.6%.

© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.Oxidative damage of DNA was assessed with glassy carbon electrode (GCE) coated with electropolymerized Methylene Blue (MB). For this purpose, DNA solution was first mixed with an oxidant (Fenton reagent, H2O2 alone and in the presence of Cu(II) ions) and then placed on the polymeric film surface. After washing, the cyclic voltammogram was recorded in buffer solution and the anodic peak potential measured against that before the contact with DNA. Oxidative DNA damage resulted in remarkable decrease of the anodic peak potential which depended on the oxidant nature and incubation period. Specificity of the DNA - MB interactions was confirmed by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) measurements. Similar experiment performed with polymerized Methylene Green (MG) and Neutral Red (NR) showed lower selectivity of the response toward various sources of reactive oxygen species. The protocol of the DNA damage detection was tested on the estimation of antioxidant properties of green tea extract and red table wine.

© 2016 Elsevier B.V.Since first report on formation stable free standing bilayer lipid membranes (BLM) in 1962 by Mueller et al. [1] these systems became very popular in modeling various membrane processes at molecular level, such as ionic transport, ligand-receptor interactions or lipid-protein interactions. Despite of advantage of BLM in respect of variation in lipid composition and their modifications by receptors and proteins, the work with these systems was rather difficult due to their limited stability. The situation has been considerably improved by introduction of supported bilayer lipid membranes (sBLM) in 1980 by Thompson et al. [2] for possible applications in biosensors. Recent advances in stabilization of supported lipid membranes, appearance of novel nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes has increased the number of publications on this topic. This review summarizes latest achievements in the field of biosensors utilizing sBLMs.

Since first report on formation stable free standing bilayer lipid membranes (BLM) in 1962 by Mueller et al. [1] these systems became very popular in modeling various membrane processes at molecular level, such as ionic transport, ligand-receptor interactions or lipid-protein interactions. Despite of advantage of BLM in respect of variation in lipid composition and their modifications by receptors and proteins, the work with these systems was rather difficult due to their limited stability. The situation has been considerably improved by introduction of supported bilayer lipid membranes (sBLM) in 1980 by Thompson et al. [2] for possible applications in biosensors. Recent advances in stabilization of supported lipid membranes, appearance of novel nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes has increased the number of publications on this topic. This review summarizes latest achievements in the field of biosensors utilizing sBLMs. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.