%0 Journal Article %T Detection of Cadmium(II) in Aquatic Products Using a Rolling-Circle Amplification-Coupled Ratio Fluorescent Probe Based on an Aptamer-Peptide Conjugate. %A Peng K %A Sha J %A Fang X %A Li M %A Yu J %A Hao L %A Xu F %J J Agric Food Chem %V 72 %N 14 %D 2024 Apr 10 %M 38509823 %F 5.895 %R 10.1021/acs.jafc.3c08636 %X The existing aptamers for cadmium (Cd2+), the common toxic heavy metal contaminant in food, cannot meet the requirements for detecting Cd2+ in rapid detection methods. In previous work, we found that coupling aptamer-peptide conjugates (APCs) with peptides and aptamers can provide a less disruptive method with a significantly improved affinity. Moreover, we found that the spatial conformation of aptamers and peptides is crucial for obtaining proper affinity in APC. Therefore, we describe a simple design strategy to obtain a series of APCs with different affinities by designing peptide orientations (N-terminal, C-terminal). The best affinity was found for APC(C1-N) with a binding constant (Ka) of 2.23 × 106 M-1, indicating that the APC(C1-N) affinity was significantly increased by 829.17% over aptamer. Finally, a rolling-circle amplification (RCA)-coupled ratio fluorescence-based biosensor for Cd2+ detection was established with a detection limit of 0.0036 nM, which has great potential for practical aquatic product detection.