Design and Development of Aptamer–Gold Nanoparticle Based Colorimetric Assays for In-the-field Applications

The overall goal is to provide a general approach for the development of an aptamer-gold nanoparticle based colorimetric assay for the detection of target molecules, and to provide approaches to improve long-term storage and reduce false positive response rates. This methods answers key questions in the field of gold nanoparticle aptamer colorimetric assays such as the reproducibility of the assays in the field for long-term storage and reducing false positive response rate. These assays can be prone to issues with shelf-life and false positive responses.

In this work, we improve over both of these issues. Clean a 500-milliliter Erlenmeyer flask and large stir bar with five milliliters of concentrated nitric acid and 15 milliliters of concentrated hydrochloric acid in a chemical safety hood. Wet the entire surface of the flask with the acid wash.

Then rinse the flask with nuclease-free water and allow the flask to dry. Add 100 milliliters of one millimolar gold three chloride. Use a sheet of aluminum foil to cover the top of the acid-cleaned Erlenmeyer flask and heat with continuous stirring on a hot plate until boiling.

Next, add 10 milliliters of 38.8 millimolar sodium citrate. The color will change from clear or gray to dark blue or black, and finally to dark to red over several minutes. Continue stirring with the heat off for 10 minutes.

Allow the gold nanoparticle suspension to cool to room temperature and add 110 microliters of DEPC with continuous stirring. Cover the entire flask with aluminum foil and allow the DEPC treatment to incubate overnight. The next day, autoclave the gold nanoparticle suspension.

Then cool to room temperature and filter through a 0.22 micron pore cellulose acetate membrane. Store the filtered, autoclaved gold nanoparticle stock solution in the dark at four degrees Celsius. Calculate the gold nanoparticle concentration as described in the text protocol.

Here, the concentration was calculated to be 10 nanomolar with a size of 15 nanometers as determined by dynamic light scattering. Purchase or synthesize the cocaine-binding aptamer sequences using standard phosphoramidite chemistry. After purifying the aptamers using standard desalting, reconstitute oligonucleotides in nuclease-free water at either 100 micromolar or one millimolar stock solutions.

Aliquoted purified aptamers can be stored at 20 degrees Celsius for several months. Combine the DNA with the 10 nanomolar stock gold nanoparticle solution, varying the volume of gold nanoparticles as desired, to provide enough sample for the test to be performed. Incubate the mixture for three to four hours at room temperature and protect from the light.

Add an equal volume of 20 millimolar HEPES, two millimolar magnesium chloride and pH 7.4 buffer, and place the sample at four degrees Celsius in the dark overnight. The initial salt concentration needed to induce the assay color response by salt titration is determined with the assay blank. Add 20 microliters of methanol to 180-microliter aliquots of the aptamer-gold chloride assay in a 96-well plate.

A critical step in the performance of these assays is to determine the sodium chloride concentration to destabilize the gold nanoparticles once the target has been added. Titrate the samples with increasing volumes of stock sodium chloride solution and determine the equivalence point. Here, determine the sodium chloride volume needed to cause the slightest color change by visual observation.

Optimizing the assay response, add 20 microliters of analyte molecules diluted in methanol to 180-microliter aliquots of aptamer-gold nanoparticle assay in a 96-well plate at room temperature. Immediately, add the sodium chloride concentration determined in the previous step to initiate the assay color response. Obtain the largest color change possible by increasing or decreasing the sodium chloride concentration and comparing the target response to the blank response.

Use the sodium chloride concentration that provides the largest response difference. Observe or measure the assay response 150 seconds following sodium chloride addition. Analyze the absorbance at 650 nanometers and 530 nanometers, using a spectrophotometer.

Plot the results as the ratio of absorbance obtained at 650 nanometers and 530 nanometers as a function of analyte concentration. Normalize the assay response to the blank signal. Prepare the aptamer-gold nanoparticle assay components as described earlier in the video.

Make separate solutions containing one gram per milliliter of trehalose and one gram per milliliter of sucrose in nuclease-free water to make the cryogen solution. So a critical step in freezing these assays is determining how much trehalose and sucrose solutions to add to the samples to ensure total and even freezing. Make a solution that contains 19.2 milligrams per milliliter of trehalose and 4.8 milligrams per milliliter of sucrose with the 60 MN4 DNA per gold nanoparticle assay at a final volume of 200 microliters in 1.5 milliliter microcentrifuge tubes.

Final cryogen solution concentrations will vary with DNA coverage. Flash freeze the samples using a 146 degrees Celsius freezer or in liquid nitrogen. Store the samples frozen until use.

For this work, leave the samples in the 146 degrees Celsius freezer overnight and then transfer to a 20 degrees Celsius freezer for long-term storage. Shown here are representative results of sodium chloride titration curves for untreated and DNA aptamer-treated gold nanoparticles. The initial sodium chloride concentration used in the assay was determined by titration.

Representative results of the aptamer-gold nanoparticle colorimetric assay for cocaine and control molecules are shown here. The graphs reveal the effect that increasing the DNA coverage density has on the false positive response rate of the cocaine assay. Shown here are the calibration curve plots obtained from photoimage analysis of the cocaine colorimetric assay.

Photos obtained using smartphones. Representative results of the assay response of aptamer-gold nanoparticle colorimetric assay to cocaine and control molecules are presented here. The data compares samples freshly prepared to samples stored frozen up to four weeks.

While attempting this procedure, it is very important to determine the proper sodium chloride concentration to destabilize the gold nanoparticles and promote the typical color change upon addition of the target. So after watching this video, you should have a good understanding of how to develop gold nanoparticle aptamer colorimetric assays for the detection of targets of interest. You can use the approaches outlined here to reduce false positive response rates and keep your assays viable for more than a month.