Enhanced adsorption capacity and specificity for recognition of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) with resorcinol-formaldehyde nanospheres and aptamer decorated graphene oxide nanocomposites.

Hypercholesterolemia is one of the major factors in the formation of atherosclerosis, and abnormally elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels are an essential indicator of the development of hypercholesterolemia. Selective reduction of LDL levels has attracted widespread attention as an important strategy for treating of hypercholesterolemia in the clinic. Here, based on the advantageous swelling properties of resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) nanospheres, nanosorbents (GO/RF/Apt) with high adsorption capacity and high selectivity are prepared by a two-step amidation reaction for LDL adsorption studies. The optimal sorption capacity of GO/RF/Apt nanocomposites for LDL upto 3528.6 μg mg-1 at the optimal experimental conditions. The utilization of the complementary single-stranded DNA for LDL-aptamer facilitates efficient LDL elution and shows superior elution efficiency. In addition, GO/RF/Apt nanocomposites as adsorbents exhibit promising adsorption behaviors toward LDL in the goat serum sample, demonstrating that GO/RF/Apt possesses the ability to selectively separate LDL from complex sample matrices. The successful application of GO/RF/Apt nanomaterials provides an innovative idea to the reduction of LDL levels in the clinic.