Persistent luminescence nanorod based luminescence resonance energy transfer aptasensor for autofluorescence-free detection of mycotoxin

Serious ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination necessitates the development of rapid, sensitive and selective analytical methods for its determination in food safety. Herein, we report a persistent luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET) based aptasensor for the autofluorescence-free detection of OTA. OTA aptamer functionalized persistent luminescence nanorod (PLNR) Zn2GeO4:Mn2+ and the aptamer complementary DNA modified gold nanoparticle (AuNP) were used as the donor and the acceptor, respectively. The developed LRET aptasensor integrated the advantages of the long-lasting persistent luminescence of PLNR, the high selectivity of aptamer and the low probe background of LRET sensors, allowing autofluorescence-free detection of OTA in biological samples with high sensitivity and selectivity. The developed LRET aptasensor gave an excellent linearity in the range of 0.01-10 ng mL(-1), the detection limit of 3 pg mL(-1) and the precision of 2.7% (RSD, n = 11) at 1 ng mL(-1) level. The applicability of the developed aptasensor was demonstrated by analyzing beer samples for OTA with the recoveries of 92.3%-104%.