A Cimaterol Molecularly Imprinted Sensor Based on DNA-assisted Recognition
Abstract A novel strategy based on DNA induced conformation change was developed by rendering the imprinting cavity with refined structure in order to further improve the selectivity of molecular imprinting membrane. The double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) were first self-assembled on the surface of the gold electrode, then cimaterol (CIM) molecule, taken as the representative target, would bind with the groove of dsDNA to form complex template, together with which the molecular imprinting polymers (MIPs) was prepared by electropolymerization in the monomer solution. After the elution of CIM, the obtained MIPs sensor had a remarkably high selectivity toward CIM. The combination process of CIM and DNA was studied by UV-Vis spectroscopy and was found to follow the groove combination model. The optimal conditions of the system were optimized by electrochemical method. The results showed that the sensor had the best recognition ability toward CIM when the elution time was 35 min by ethanol-acetic acid (8:1, V/V) as an eluent and rebound time was 45 min. This sensor exhibited a linear detection range of 1.0 × 10−13−1.0 × 10−10 M with a detection limit of 3.2 × 10−14 M. The sensor was successfully applied for detection of CIM in pork samples.