REVIEW article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Food Science Technology
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvanced Biosensors and Chemosensors toward Mycotoxins Analysis for Food SafetyView all 4 articles
Advancements in aptasensors development for the detection of zearalenone
Provisionally accepted
Sihui Cheng
Junjie XuPengfei GaoJingjing CaiYang CaoYiwei Hong
Hao DingHao ChenXu Liu
Genxi Zhang
Tao Zhang
Xiaodong Guo*Kaizhou Xie*- Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
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Zearalenone (ZEN), an estrogenic mycotoxin produced by Fusarium species, is a frequent contaminant in cereals and other agricultural commodities. Its presence poses substantial economic losses, threatens food safety, and presents significant risks to human health, making it a growing concern worldwide. Consequently, the development of rapid, sensitive, and reliable methods for ZEN detection is of critical importance. In recent years, aptasensors technologies have emerged as promising tools for mycotoxin monitoring. This review comprehensively summarizes recent advances in ZEN-specific aptasensors, with a focus on detection mechanisms, analytical performance, and comparative advantages and limitations of various platforms. By providing an up-to-date overview of optical, electrochemical, and other emerging sensing strategies, this work aims to support future developments in mycotoxin prevention and detection, thereby contributing to enhanced food safety assurance.
Keywords: aptamer, Aptasensor, detection, Food Safety, Zearalenone
Received: 31 Dec 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Cheng, Xu, Gao, Cai, Cao, Hong, Ding, Chen, Liu, Zhang, Zhang, Guo and Xie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xiaodong Guo
Kaizhou Xie
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