Gold Nanoparticle SELEX Screening via Colorimetric Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current aptamer screening methods, such as SELEX, are time-consuming and require extensive rounds of binding, washing, and amplification, making it difficult to monitor progress and select aptamers efficiently, especially for targets that require surface modification and post-SELEX processes.
Innovation Solution
A method involving gold nanoparticles and single-stranded nucleic acids, where the binding affinity is monitored through color changes induced by salt aggregation, allowing for rapid assessment of aptamer selection progress without chemical modification of the target, enabling flexible and experimenter-friendly aptamer selection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional SELEX method is used for aptamer screening, then specific aptamers can be obtained, but the screening process takes several months due to multiple rounds of binding, washing, and amplification
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical/chemical SELEX process with gold nanoparticle-based colorimetric detection. Instead of performing multiple rounds of binding, washing, and amplification, the method uses gold nanoparticles functionalized with aptamers that change color upon binding to target molecules, enabling rapid visual or spectrophotometric detection of binding events without time-consuming mechanical operations
Solution Approach 2:
The patent exploits the color change property of gold nanoparticles when they aggregate upon aptamer-target binding. The color transition from red to purple/blue provides a direct visual and spectrophotometric signal for detecting aptamer binding to target molecules, eliminating the need for multiple analytical rounds and enabling rapid screening within minutes to hours
2Reliability
If surface modification and post-SELEX processes are performed to improve aptamer performance, then binding efficacy is enhanced, but the complexity of the selection process increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the complex surface modification and post-SELEX processing steps from the traditional workflow. By using gold nanoparticles as ready-to-use platforms with inherent optical properties, the method removes the need for additional chemical modification steps while maintaining binding efficacy through direct colorimetric readout
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal platform where gold nanoparticles serve multiple functions: they act as carriers for aptamers, provide amplification through collective optical signals, enable visual detection, and allow for both screening and characterization in a single step. This multi-functional approach simplifies the overall process while maintaining or enhancing binding efficacy
3Loss of information
If monitoring is performed during SELEX rounds to check aptamer selection progress, then selection direction can be verified, but the time required for aptamer selection increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements real-time feedback through colorimetric monitoring during the selection process. The color change of gold nanoparticles provides immediate information about aptamer binding and selection progress, allowing researchers to verify selection direction and adjust protocols without time-consuming delays between monitoring points
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables continuous monitoring of aptamer selection through the persistent colorimetric signal from gold nanoparticles. Instead of discrete monitoring at specific intervals, the color change provides ongoing information about binding events and selection progress throughout the entire process, maintaining useful information flow without interrupting the selection workflow
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method significantly reduces the time required for aptamer selection by using colorimetric monitoring of gold nanoparticle aggregation, allowing for quick analysis of binding forces and efficient selection of aptamers for various targets, including Brassinolide and Bisphenol A, with potential applications in imaging, diagnosis, and drug delivery.
Implementation Method 1
the binding affinity is monitored through color changes induced by salt aggregation
Implementation Method 2
determining whether to proceed with an additional reaction through the color index of the reaction mixture
Data Source
AI summary
Systematic Evolution of Ligand Exponential Enrichment (SELEX) is involved to screen DNA/RNA aptamers that recognize a target molecule (including biomolecules such as nucleic acids, lipids, sugars, proteins, and peptides, hormones, low molecular weight chemical substances, toxic substances, ions, etc.). In general, in order to perform SELEX, a process of fixing a target molecule on a substrate or bead surface is required. In addition, since positive/negative monitoring is not possible in each round of a SELEX process to observe whether an aptamer library is actually well combined with a target substance, whether the SELEX process is proceeded correctly is checked by analyzing aptamers screened through several rounds. In order to remarkably solve these conventional problems and to construct a simpler and easier SELEX technique, the present disclosure provides a new SELEX technique using gold nanoparticles.