Covalent attachment of aptamer onto nanocomposite as a high performance electrochemical sensing platform: Fabrication of an ultra-sensitive ibuprofen electrochemical aptasensor

In the present study, we report a selective electrochemical aptasensor for the ultrasensitive detection of an anti-inflammatory drug, ibuprofen (IBP). The proposed system was achieved by the modification of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with multiwalled carbon nanotubes/ionic liquid/chitosan (MWCNTs/IL/Chit) nanocomposite and the covalent immobilization of the IBP specific aptamer (Apt) onto the modified electrode surface followed by methylene blue (MB) intercalated onto the Apt as the electrochemical redox marker. Upon the incubation of the IBP as a target in the proposed aptasensor, the peak current of MB decreases due to the formation of the Apt-IBP complex and the displacement of MB from the immobilized Apt onto the modified electrode surface. The nanocomposite not only increases the electrode surface area and accelerate the electron transfer kinetics but also it provides a highly stable matrix to enhance the loading amount of the Apt DNA sequence. Through differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) experiments, it was found that the proposed aptasensor could detect the IBP with a linear range (70pM up to 6μM) and the detection limit (LOD) as low as 20pM. The results showed that the aptasensor had good sensitivity, stability, reproducibility, and specificity to detect the IBP. The proposed aptasensor was successfully applied for measuring the IBP concentration in real samples. Based on our experiments we can say that the present method proposes new horizons for the development of other aptasensors for diagnostic application in biosensing.