Park Junyoung, Kim Donghyun, Kim Dongyun, Jung Jihyeun, Zoh Kyung-Duk, Lee Changha, Choi Yongju, Choe Jong Kwon
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Institute of Construction and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea.
Environ Sci Technol. 2025 Aug 19;59(32):17247-17257. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.5c04730. Epub 2025 Aug 7.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are widely recognized as emerging contaminants because they are ubiquitous in various environmental media. Their potential for chronic toxicity after prolonged human exposure is a growing concern. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop an appropriate technology to efficiently treat and rapidly and consistently monitor PFAS levels. This study reports the development of the first aptamers that can bind to perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), with a dissociation constant () of 6.76 μM, and exhibit a high specificity for PFOS even in the presence of other PFAS. The binding site and mechanism of the prepared aptamers are explored using truncation and molecular dynamics simulations, which show that the lengths of fluorocarbons and functional groups are important recognition epitopes. To demonstrate the application potential of the prepared aptamers, an aptamer-based quantitative polymerase chain reaction method is also developed, which exhibits picomolar-level detection capabilities and a limit of detection of 5.8 pM (2.9 ng/L), indicating its high sensitivity. Our findings demonstrate the potential of the developed method in the rapid monitoring of PFOS at contamination sites, which will facilitate its early detection before rigorous analysis.
全氟和多氟烷基物质（PFAS）被广泛认为是新兴污染物，因为它们在各种环境介质中普遍存在。长期人类接触后其慢性毒性潜力日益受到关注。因此，迫切需要开发一种合适的技术来有效处理并快速、持续地监测PFAS水平。本研究报告了首个能与全氟辛烷磺酸（PFOS）结合的适配体的开发，其解离常数（）为6.76 μM，并且即使在存在其他PFAS的情况下对PFOS也表现出高特异性。使用截短和分子动力学模拟探索了所制备适配体的结合位点和机制，结果表明碳氟链长度和官能团是重要的识别表位。为证明所制备适配体的应用潜力，还开发了一种基于适配体的定量聚合酶链反应方法，该方法具有皮摩尔级检测能力，检测限为5.8 pM（2.9 ng/L），表明其具有高灵敏度。我们的研究结果证明了所开发方法在污染场地快速监测PFOS方面的潜力，这将有助于在进行严格分析之前实现其早期检测。
