High-affinity truncated aptamers for detection of Cronobacter spp with magnetic separation-assisted DNAzyme-driven 3D DNA walker

After optimizing the original aptamer sequence by truncation strategy, a magnetic separation-assisted DNAzyme-driven 3D DNA walker fluorescent aptasensor was developed for detecting the food-borne pathogen Cronobacter species. Iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) modified with a hybrid of truncated aptamer probe and DNAzyme strand (AP-E1) denoted as MNPs@AP-E1, were employed as capture probes. Simultaneously, a DNAzyme-driven 3D-DNA walker was utilized as the signal amplification element. The substrate strand (Sub) was conjugated with the gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), resulting in the formation of AuNPs@Sub, which served as a 3D walking track. In the presence of the target bacteria and Mg²⁺, E1-DNAzyme was activated and moved along AuNPs@Sub, continuously releasing the signal probe. Under optimized conditions, a strong linear correlation was observed for Cronobacter sakazakii (C. sakazakii) in the concentration range 10¹ to 10⁶ CFU mL⁻¹, with a low detection limit of 2 CFU mL⁻¹. The fluorescence signal responses for different Cronobacter species exhibited insignificant differences, with a relative standard deviation of 3.6%. Moreover, the aptasensor was successfully applied to determine C. sakazakii in real samples with recoveries of 92.86%—108.33%. Therefore, the novel method could be a good candidate for ultra-sensitive and selective detection of Cronobacter species without complex manipulation. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.)