Abstract

Life-threatening allergic reactions to food allergens, particularly peanut protein Ara h1, are a growing public health concern affecting millions of people worldwide. Thus, accurate and rapid detection is necessary for allergen labeling and dietary guidance and ultimately preventing allergic incidents. Herein, we present a novel ratiometric fluorescence aptasensor based on multivalent aptamer-encoded DNA flowers (Mul-DNFs) for the high-stability and sensitive detection of allergen Ara h1. The flower-shaped Mul-DNFs were spontaneously packaged using ultralong polymeric DNA amplicons driven by a rolling circle amplification reaction, which contains a large number of Ara h1 specific recognition units and has excellent binding properties. Furthermore, dual-color fluorescence-labeled Mul-DNFs probes were developed by hybridizing them with Cy3- and Cy5-labeled complementary DNA (cDNA) to serve as a ratiometric fluorescence aptasensor platform based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer. Benefiting from the combined merits of the extraordinary synergistic multivalent binding ability of Mul-DNFs, the excellent specificity of the aptamer, and the sensitivity of the ratiometric sensor to avoid exogenous interference. The developed ratiometric aptasensor showed excellent linearity (0.05–2000 ng mL–1) with a limit of detection of 0.02 ng mL–1. Additionally, the developed ratiometric fluorescence aptasensor was utilized for quantifying the presence of Ara h1 in milk, infant milk powder, cookies, bread, and chocolate with recoveries of 95.7–106.3%. The proposed ratiometric aptasensor is expected to be a prospective universal aptasensor platform for the rapid, sensitive, and accurate determination of food and environmental hazards.