In vitro selection of DNA aptamers binding pesticide fluoroacetamide

Fluoroacetamide (Mw = 77.06) is a lethal rodenticide to humans and animals which is still frequently abused in food storage somewhere in China. The production of antibodies for fluoroacetamide is difficult due to its high toxicity to animals, which limits the application of immunoassay method in poison detection. In this work, aptamers targeting N-fluoroacetyl glycine as an analog of fluoroacetamide were selected by a specific systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX) strategy. The binding ability of the selected aptamers to fluoroacetamide was identified using surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-based assay. The estimated KD values in the low micromolar range showed a good affinity of these aptamers to the target. Our work verified that the SELEX strategy has the potential for developing aptamers targeted to small molecular toxicants and aptamers can be employed as new recognition elements instead of antibodies for poison detection.