Detection of ochratoxin A (OTA) in coffee using chemiluminescence resonance energy transfer (CRET) aptasensor

•We designed a CRET aptasensor for detection of the OTA in roasted coffee beans.•Dabcyl at the end of the OTA aptamer region plays as a quencher in CRET aptasensor.•The signal decreases with increasing the concentration of the OTA.•This provides sensitive, homogeneous, noncompetitive, simple, and rapid detection.•This method has the potential for OTA analysis in diverse foods. We report a chemiluminescence resonance energy transfer (CRET) aptasensor for the detection of ochratoxin A (OTA) in roasted coffee beans. The aptamer sequences used in this study are 5′-DNAzyme-Linker-OTA aptamer-3′-dabcyl. Dabcyl at the end of the OTA aptamer region plays as a quencher in CRET aptasensor. When hemin and OTA are added, the dabcyl-labeled OTA aptamer approaches to the G-quadruplex–hemin complex by formation of the G-quadruplex–OTA complex. The G-quadruplex–hemin complexes possess horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-like activity, and therefore, the HRP-mimicking DNAzyme (HRPzyme) catalyzes peroxidation in the presence of luminol and H2O2. Resonance energy transfer between luminol (donor) and dabcyl (acceptor) enables quenching of chemiluminescence signals. The signal decreases with increasing the concentration of OTA within the range of 0.1–100ngmL−1 (limit of detection 0.22ngmL−1), and the level of recovery of the respective 1ngmL−1 and 10ngmL−1 spiked coffee samples was 71.5% and 93.3%. These results demonstrated the potential of the proposed method for OTA analysis in diverse foods.