Abstract:Food safety is closely related to human health. Heavy metal pollution has become a prominent problem in the field of food safety. In order to ensure food safety, it is extremely important to develop a fast, cheap and popular method for detecting heavy metal pollution in food. In recent years, biosensing and analysis technologies based on functional nucleic acids have attracted widespread attention. Functional nucleic acids such as ribozymes and nucleic acid aptamers as a new type of biological recognition molecules can realize the specific recognition of metal ions, and have the potential to be used for constructing a highly sensitive and selective analysis and detection platform for heavy metals in food. This article reviews the progress of applying functional nucleic acids in the detection of polluted heavy metals such as lead ion (Pb2+), mercury ion (Hg2+) and cadmium ion (Cd2+), with the focus on the fluorescent sensor and colorimetric sensor constructed by functional nucleic acid(s) as well as the nucleic acid nanosensor constructed by the composite of functional nucleic acid(s) and nanoparticles. In addition, considering the broad scope and large number of samples involved in the detection of heavy metal ions in food, this article highlights a detection platform integrating functional nucleic acids with microfluidic technology and portable detection equipment to provide ideas for on-site analysis of food heavy metal contamination.
