Selection, identification and binding mechanism analysis of nucleic acid aptamer for Azaspiracid-1

Abstract

Azaspiracid-1 (AZA-1), identified as a polyether marine phycotoxin, often causes severe gastrointestinal symptoms and threatens human health, and its outbreak also dramatically disrupted the economy of areas where shellfish are harvested and processed. However, to date, there are still a lack of effective detection methods for AZA-1. Nucleic acid aptamers, capable of specific, high-affinity molecular binding, have been increasingly explored in the field of biomedical diagnosis in recent years. Here, we utilized capture-systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (Capture-SELEX) to obtain the nucleic acid aptamer of AZA-1, and employed biolayer interferometry (BLI) to validate the affinity and specificity between aptamers and AZA-1. Simultaneously, we applied molecular docking and dynamics simulation to determine the possible binding mechanism between aptamers and AZA-1. This study provided a feasible solution for selection, identification and binding mechanism analysis of AZA-1 aptamer and laid a favorable foundation for AZA-1 detection in the future.