Aptamer biosensor for label-free square-wave voltammetry detection of angiogenin

Angiogenin (Ang), one of the most potent angiogenic factor, is related with the growth and metastasis of numerous tumors. This paper presents a very simple and label-free square-wave voltammetry (SWV) aptasensor to detect angiogenin, in which an anti-angiogenin-aptamer was used as a molecular recognition element, and the couple ferro/ferricyanide as a redox probe. At the bare gold electrode, the redox couple (K ₄[Fe(CN) ₆]/K ₃[Fe(CN) ₆]) can be very easily accessed to the electrode surface to give a very strong SWV signal. At the anti-angiogenin/Au electrode surface, when angiogenin was added to the electrochemical cell, the binding of the analyte results in less availability for a redox reaction, which led to smaller SWV current. To quantify the amount of angiogenin, current suppressions of SWV peak were monitored using the redox couple of an [Fe(CN) ₆] ^4-/3- probe. The plot of signal suppression against the logarithm of angiogenin concentration is linear with over the range from 0.01nM to 30nM with a detection limit of 1pM. The aptasensor also showed very good selectivity for angiogenin without being affected by the presence of other proteins in serum. It is the first time to use a very simple method to detect the cancer marker. Such an aptasensor opens a rapid, selective and sensitive route for angiogenin detection and provides a promising strategy for other protein detections.