Next-Gen Sensors for Hormonal Precision – Measurement of Progesterone and Oestradiol Concentration in Blood Concentration in Blood

Abstract

Detecting hormones in females is critical for optimizing reproductive health, accurately diagnosing hormonal disorders, and ensuring comprehensive mental and physical well-being. Current methods for hormone detection often face limitations, as they tend to be invasive, time-consuming, and costly, highlighting the need for novel techniques to address these challenges. Aptamers are short, single-stranded DNA or RNA molecules that bind specifically to target molecules, such as proteins or small compounds, with high affinity and specificity.  In this study, we hypothesize that hormones can dock into the major groove of aptamers, enabling their detection using aptamers. My research focuses on two specific hormones, oestradiol and progesterone. First, we employed a systematic approach to model aptamer sequence in primary, secondary, and tertiary forms for aptamer 3D structure modeling. we used Vfold2D to transfer aptamer structures from primary to secondary by uploading the aptamer sequence and saving the dot-bracket notations. To transition from secondary to tertiary structures, we utilized the vfold3D platform, importing the sequences along with their dot-bracket notations and configuring the number of clusters to one. The final step involved molecular docking simulations of the hormones using the HDOCK software to study the interactions at the tertiary structural level. Based on the docking analysis, aptamer SH-ssDNA and B10-P were selected as the most appropriate candidates based on the molecular docking binding energy. The application of this research lies in developing precise biosensors for hormonal disorders. By studying aptamer-hormone interactions, this approach could be extended to create hormone diagnostic tools for reproductive health disorders and hormone-responsive cancers.