Aptamer charge-amplified field-effect transistor biosensors achieve picomolar detection limits for small-molecule biomarkers in complex biological matrices

Aptamers are attractive receptors for small-molecule biomarker detection in complex samples because of their high stability, affinity, and specificity, but aptamer-based sensors generally lack the sensitivity to detect low-abundance analytes. As a solution, we developed the charge-amplified FET (CAFET) aptamer biosensor, which is designed to amplify the net charge variation within the Debye length that occurs as a consequence of aptamer-target binding. Our sensor utilizes a strand-displacement aptamer switch, which releases an initially-hybridized displacement strand (DS) upon target binding and thus induces a measurable net charge variation within the Debye length that is amplified to a large FET current response as signal readout. This signal can be further enhanced by adding a charge label to the DS. As a consequence, our sensor can achieve far greater sensitivity than previously described aptamer-FET sensors, where the binding-induced local charge variation is modest. We demonstrate 3-hydroxykynurenine and progesterone detection with a picomolar limit of detection in undiluted human plasma—four orders of magnitude lower than the dissociation constant ( K _D ) of the aptamer component. The CAFET sensor design is modular and should be adaptable for the detection of a wide range of clinically-informative low-abundance analytes in complex samples.