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A Computational Approach to Comparative Analysis of Aflatoxin B1-Specific Aptamers for Detection: Insights into Molecular Interactions and Binding Affinities
* 1 , 2
1  CRDT, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, 110026, India
2  Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India
Academic Editor: Vladimir Uversky

Abstract:

Aflatoxins (AFs) are the carcinogenic secondary metabolites produced by fungi such as Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus, and A. nomius. These fungi are widespread and have severely contaminated food/feed supplies. The major health consequences of consuming AF-contaminated food/feed are Hepatocellular carcinoma and its associated complications. Therefore, detecting and quantifying AFs in foods and feeds is critical to achieve food safety. Among the available methods, aptamer-based techniques are receiving more attention considering their specificity, sensitivity, low cost, and ease of production and handling. Though AFB1-specific aptamers have been well studied, ligand–aptamer molecular interactions are not clear. In the present study, the three-dimensional structures of available AFB1-specific DNA aptamers were predicted using RNA-based web servers with an automated machine translation principle and some manual changes in the script file. Molecular docking was performed between selected DNA aptamers and AFB1. Molecular docking results revealed that the AFB1 was located inside the pocket area of the predicted tertiary structures and formed electrostatic interactions with the nucleotides of aptamers. The binding affinities of all aptamers were between -7.3 and -11.7 kcal/mol. This study adds to our understanding of how AFB1 interacts with all available aptamers. The developed workflow enables the generation and examination of additional appealing ligand–aptamer complexes to detect AF and other mycotoxins.

Keywords: Aflatoxin, Apatmers, Molecular Docking, binding affinities

 
 
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