The detection and monitoring of acetamiprid has drawn extensive attentions, due to their potential threat to human health. Herein, a simple, sensitive and label-free fluorescent assay based on triplex-to-G-qadruplex (TTGQ) molecular switch, was developed for the assay of acetamiprid in aqueous solution. In this detection, the proposed TTGQ molecule contained the acetamiprid aptamer sequence at its loop part and the triple-helix structure at its stem part. One single-stranded DNA grafted by two split G-rich DNA sequences at its two ends, participated in the assembly of the triplex part in TTGQ. In the presence of acetamiprid, TTGQ was dissociated, and the split G-rich DNA was released out to result in the fluorescent signal enhancement of a G-quadruplex's probe. By virtue of this TTGQ molecular switch, the proposed assay can sense acetamiprid at the concentration as low as 2.38 nM with excellent selectivity . Furthermore, the detection of acetamiprid in three kinds of foods extract demonstrated the high application potential of the detection platform in the field of food safety. Compared with the other reported strategies for acetamiprid assay, this triplex-to-G-qadruplex-based fluorescent molecular switch was just composed of two DNA probes without the labeling procedure, presenting a really simple and low-cost fluorescent detection for acetamiprid assay.
A simple fluorescence detection platform has been established for acetamiprid assay based on DNA three-way junctions (TWJs), which can triple the fluorescence signal without any other amplification. It is designed with three single-stranded DNAs (ssDNA), each of which contains one-third or two-thirds of the G-quadruplex sequence at each end. Upon the addition of acetamiprid, the conformation of the aptamer-containing double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) changes from its original conformation and releases a strand of ssDNA. This ssDNA, with the other two ssDNAs, can assemble into DNA TWJs, and the three pairs of the branched ends of the DNA TWJs are adjacent to each other, allowing them to form three units of G-quadruplexes. Hence, the fluorescence of N -methyl mesoporphyrin IX (NMM) is lighted by the nascent G-quadruplexes. Graphene oxide (GO) is then added to minimize the detection background by absorbing the free NMM and non-target-induced ssDNA. The proposed strategy can assay acetamiprid in a wide linear range of 0–500 nM with a detection limit of 5.73 nM. More importantly, this assay platform demonstrates high potential for acetamiprid assay in food control and environmental monitoring.