Molecular recognition elements-integrated multimodal nanosensing of aflatoxin B1: design principles and self-calibrating paradigms.

Authors

Fang Li, Longping Xu, Jingwen Qiao, Mengni Zhao, Ruowei Liu, Jiayun Zhang, Mengwei Wang, Dan Meng, Zijian Wu

Published in

Mikrochimica acta. Volume 193. Issue 11. Oct 27, 2026. Epub Oct 27, 2026.

Abstract

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is a potent hepatocarcinogenic mycotoxin that poses severe health risks through contaminated agricultural products. Rapid, sensitive, reliable, and field-deployable detection methods are therefore critical for food safety. Conventional instrumental techniques suffer from high cost, complex operation, and unsuitability for on-site screening. Biosensors employing molecular recognition elements (MREs) such as antibodies, aptamers, and molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) have emerged as promising alternatives, offering enhanced specificity and sensitivity. Nevertheless, single-mode sensing platforms remain fundamentally vulnerable to environmental interferences, matrix effects, and instrumental drift, leading to compromised accuracy and reliability. In this context, it is essential to conduct an in-depth review of AFB1 detection strategies to advance the establishment of a multimodal nanosensing paradigm. It details the integration of functional nanomaterials, including metal nanoparticles, metal oxides, carbon-based nanomaterials, metal-organic frameworks and their derivatives, and MXenes, with MREs to construct dual-mode and triple-mode sensing platforms. The molecular specificity conferred by MREs ensures selective target capture in complex food matrices. The multimodal signal transduction, encompassing fluorescent-colorimetric (FL-CL), surface-enhanced Raman scattering-fluorescent (SERS-FL), electrochemical-optical/photoelectrochemical (EC-Optical/PEC), and triple-mode configurations, provides the built-in cross-validation and self-calibration capabilities of detection results. Finally, the challenges and future prospects are discussed, including further integration and coordination of multimodal signals, miniaturized portable sensing platforms, advanced nanomaterials, and detection-remediation integration. This review advances the rational design of next-generation AFB1 multimodal self-calibrating nanosensors with integrated MREs, and promotes their practical deployment in food safety regulation, and public health protection.

PMID:
42944807
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 28 Oct 2026.

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