Rapid, Selective, and Sensitive Sensors for Nerve Agents
Abstract
Phosphoryl fluoride nerve agents, such as sarin and soman, are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. Differentiating between these structurally similar analytes is currently very challenging. In addition, the sensitivity needs to be extremely high because these agents are active at very low concentrations. Thus, we have devised an analytical method to address both these issues. Our strategy is to use an oxime as a supernucleophile for a very fast reaction with the agent. The oxime will be appended to a peptide as a hook for an aptamer. Then, a DNA aptamer will be created via SELEX for selective detection of the phosphorylated oxime/peptide conjugate. This will impart selectivity between differing nerve agents. Next, to signal the phosphorylation event an autoinductive signal casade for released fluoride will amplify the signal that is then read with a fluorescence fluoride sensor. Overall, our approach solves many of the existing problems in nerve agent detection in the field.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 26, 2016
- Source ID
- HDTRA11610001
Entities
People
- Eric Anslyn
Organizations
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency
- University of Texas at Austin