Kwon Hyukin, Chan Ke Min, Kool Eric T
Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Org Biomol Chem. 2017 Feb 22;15(8):1801-1809. doi: 10.1039/c6ob02830f.
Environmental contaminants pose a substantial health risk in many areas of the world. One of these risks is contamination of water with toxic organic species, such as herbicides and insecticides. Here we describe the discovery and properties of a set of fluorescent chemosensors that respond to micromolar concentrations of a broad range of common organic pesticides. The chemosensors are short DNA-like oligomers with fluorophores replacing DNA bases that are assembled via a DNA synthesizer. We screened a library of 1296 tetrameric compounds on polystyrene microbeads, and identified a set of chemosensor sequences that respond strongly to a set of structurally varied pesticide analytes. We show that ten chemosensors on beads can be used to detect and identify 14 different common pesticides at 100 μM, using the pattern of fluorescence intensity and wavelength changes. Limits of detection for two analytes were as low as 2 μM. The chemosensors are shown to function successfully in a practical setting, correctly identifying unknown pesticide contaminants in water from Felt Lake, California. The results establish a simple, low cost strategy for sensing environmental spills of toxic organics.
在世界许多地区，环境污染物构成了重大的健康风险。其中一个风险是水被有毒有机物质污染，如除草剂和杀虫剂。在此，我们描述了一组荧光化学传感器的发现及其特性，这些传感器能对微摩尔浓度的多种常见有机农药做出反应。这些化学传感器是类似DNA的短寡聚物，其中荧光团取代了通过DNA合成仪组装的DNA碱基。我们在聚苯乙烯微珠上筛选了一个包含1296种四聚体化合物的文库，并鉴定出一组对一系列结构各异的农药分析物有强烈反应的化学传感器序列。我们表明，利用荧光强度和波长变化模式，珠子上的十种化学传感器可用于检测和识别100μM浓度下的14种不同常见农药。两种分析物的检测限低至2μM。这些化学传感器在实际环境中成功发挥作用，正确识别了加利福尼亚州费尔特湖水中未知的农药污染物。这些结果确立了一种简单、低成本的策略来检测有毒有机物的环境泄漏。
