A FRET-based aptasensor for the detection of α-synuclein oligomers as biomarkers of Parkinson's disease.

Soluble oligomers of α-synuclein (α-syn) are known to be responsible for neuronal death in the early stages of Parkinson's disease (PD). Thus, the development of a simple, rapid, and inexpensive method for the detection of α-syn oligomers can help PD diagnosis before irreversible damage to the brain tissue occurs. The present study is aimed at developing a FRET-based aptasensor for the selective and sensitive detection of α-syn oligomers. Herein, FAM-labeled aptamer adsorption on graphene oxide (GO) resulted in fluorescence quenching of FAM. The binding of α-syn oligomers to the aptamer led to the recovery of the fluorescence intensity. Under optimized conditions, the developed biosensor showed two linear response ranges from 10-100 nM and 250 nM to 2 μM in α-syn oligomer detection. The limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were calculated to be 6.3 nM and 19.3 nM, respectively. Furthermore, the performance of the sensing platform in the detection of the target analyte in biological matrices was demonstrated by the assay of α-syn oligomers in spiked human saliva samples. According to the obtained results, this sensing platform has a good performance for α-syn oligomer detection and it can be considered as a promising candidate for the early diagnosis of PD.