Aptasensors Technologies for Aflatoxins B1 Application

Mycotoxins, highly toxic metabolites occurred by various molds, can contaminate foods and agricultural products, which mainly includes maize, cereals, nuts, meat, milk, wine, and fruits.
Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), one of the most important and toxic mycotoxins, has been classified as group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health
Organization (WHO) [1]. The toxicity of AFB1 is over than KCN, arsenic and melamine by 10, 68, and 416 times, respectively. The maximum tolerated level of AFB1 was established at 2 μg kg-1 for all cereals and cereal-derived products by European Commission [2].
Traditional AFB1 detection methods are instrumental approaches (like High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)) and antibody-based immunoassays (like Enzyme-Linked Immune Sorbent
Assay (ELISA)). Aptamers, considered as “chemical antibodies”, were obtained and selected by systematic evolution of the ligand by the exponential enrichment process (SELEX) in vitro. They can specifically recognize various target with high affinity like or even superior to antibodies [3]. Aptamer-based biosensors have been widely applied for the detection of AFB1 in recent years. Moreimportantly, in order to achieve the performance of simple and rapid detection, low cost, high sensitivity and specificity, current technologies were employed to construct aptasensors for AFB1 determination.