Nanomaterials for biosensing with electrochemiluminescence (ECL) detection

Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensor based on tris(2,2'-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) with glucose and lactate dehydrogenases encapsulated within alginate hydrogels

Two dehydrogenase enzymes (glucose, GDH, and lactate, LDH, dehydrogenases) encapsulated within alginate hydrogels were deposited on glassy carbon electrodes. The as-prepared enzyme modified alginate hydrogels were utilized as electrochemiluminescence (ECL)-based biosensors for the indirect detection of glucose and lactic acid upon reaction between NADH and tris(2,2'-bipyridyl) ruthenium (II) [Ru(bpy)₃]²⁺. The ECL response was obtained from the redox reaction between the substrate, the cofactor NAD⁺ and the encapsulated enzyme. The production of NADH resulting from the enzymatic reaction led to the ECL emission upon reaction with [Ru(bpy)₃]²⁺. The biosensors showed good stability and repeatability, with linear range between 0.56 and 4.2 µM and limit of detection of 0.84 µM for glucose, and linear range between 5 and 30 µM with a limit of detection of 2.52 µM for lactic acid. These ECL-based biosensors showed good sensitivity when tested in the presence of common interfering species. These biosensors were utilized in artificial sweat and were characterized by good reproducibility and repeatability. The results herein presented suggest that the dehydrogenases encapsulated within alginate hydrogels have potential for the development of biocompatible sensors for detection of glucose and lactic acid in physiological fluids.

The role of doping strategy in nanoparticle-based electrochemiluminescence biosensing

Doping plays a crucial role in electrochemiluminescence (ECL) due to the followings: (1) Modulation of electronic structure, alteration of the surface state of nanoparticles (NPs), providing effective protection from the surrounding environment, thereby leading to ECL emitters with exceptional properties including tunable spectra, high luminescence efficiency, low excitation potential, and good stability. (2) Employment of doped NPs as promising coreactant alternatives due to the presence of functional groups such as amines induced by NP doping. (3) Serving as novel co-reaction accelerators (CRAs) for ECL through doping induced high catalytic properties. (4) Behaving as excellent carriers to load ECL emitters, recognition elements, and catalysts due to doping-induced larger surface area, higher conductivity and better biocompatibility of NPs. As a consequence, doped NPs have aroused broad interest and found wide applications in various ECL sensing platforms. In this review, the current promising improvements, concepts, and excellent applications of doped NPs for ECL biosensing are addressed. We aim to bring to light the physicochemical characteristics of various doped NPs that endow them with appealing ECL performance, leading to diverse applications in biosensing.

Poly(carbazole-co-1,4-dimethoxybenzene): Synthesis, Electrochemiluminescence Performance, and Application in Detection of Fe3+

In this study, four polycarbazole derivatives (PCMB-Ds) with different alkyl side chains were designed and synthesized via Wittig–Horner reaction. A novel solid-phase electrochemiluminescence (ECL) system was prepared by immobilizing PCMB-D on an indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) in the presence of tripropylamine (TPrA). It could be found that the increase in alkyl side chain length had little effect on the ECL signal of PCMB-D, while the increase in the degree of polymerization (DP) greatly enhanced the ECL signal. Furthermore, the P-3/ITO ECL sensor based on the polyoctylcarbazole derivative (P-3) with the best ECL performance was successfully constructed and detected Fe³⁺ under the optimal experimental conditions. The ECL signal steadily diminished with the increased concentration of Fe³⁺ because of the competition and complexation between Fe³⁺ and P-3 under the condition of pH 7.4. This P-3/ITO platform could realize a highly sensitive and selective detection of Fe³⁺ with a wide detection range (from 6 × 10⁻⁸ mol/L to 1 × 10⁻⁵ mol/L) and low detection limit of 2 × 10⁻⁸ mol/L, which could allow the detection of Fe³⁺ in multiple scenarios, and would have a great application prospect.

Recent Advances in Aggregation-Induced Electrochemiluminescence

The emergence of the rising alliance between aggregation-induced emission (AIE) and electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is defined as aggregation-induced electrochemiluminescence (AIECL). The booming science of AIE has proved to be not only distinguished in luminescent materials but could also inject new possibility into ECL analysis. Especially in the aqueous phase and solid state for hydrophobic materials, AIE helps ECL circumvent the dilemma between substantial emission intensity and biocompatible media. The wide range of analytes makes ECL an overwhelmingly interesting analytical technique. Therefore, AIECL has gained potential in clinical diagnostics, environmental assays, and biomarker detections. This review will focus on introduction of the novel concept of AIECL, current applied luminophores, and related applications developed in recent years.

Trends and Advances in Electrochemiluminescence Nanobiosensors

The rapid and increasing use of the nanomaterials (NMs), nanostructured materials (NSMs), metal nanoclusters (MNCs) or nanocomposites (NCs) in the development of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) nanobiosensors is a significant area of study for its massive potential in the practical application of nanobiosensor fabrication. Recently, NMs or NSMs (such as AuNPs, AgNPs, Fe₃O₄, CdS QDs, OMCs, graphene, CNTs and fullerenes) or MNCs (such as Au, Ag, and Pt) or NCs of both metallic and non-metallic origin are being employed for various purposes in the construction of biosensors. In this review, we have selected recently published articles (from 2014-2017) on the current development and prospects of label-free or direct ECL nanobiosensors that incorporate NCs, NMs, NSMs or MNCs.

An electrochemiluminescent microRNA biosensor based on hybridization chain reaction coupled with hemin as the signal enhancer

In this study, a new universal biosensor based on luminol anodic electrochemiluminescence (ECL) for the detection of microRNA-155 was constructed by using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as a co-reactant and hemin as a catalyzer for signal amplification. The bare glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was first electrodeposited with Au nanoparticles (AuNPs). Then, helper DNA, which was partly complementary with the hairpin DNA chains, was assembled on the prepared GCE. Target microRNA-155 and the hairpin hybridization chains could create a formation of extended double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) polymers through the displacement of hybridization chains and the hybridization chain reaction (HCR). The HCR-generated dsDNA polymers give rise to the intercalation of a lot of hemin which could catalyze the oxidation of H2O2, leading to a remarkably amplified ECL signal output. The proposed biosensor showed a wide linear range from 5 fM to 50 pM with a relatively low detection limit of 1.67 fM for microRNA-155 detection. With excellent selectivity, good stability and high sensitivity, the proposed biosensor is promising in the development of a high-throughput assay of microRNA-155.

Electrochemiluminescence-based detection method of lead(II) ion via dual enhancement of intermolecular and intramolecular co-reaction

A novel analytical method to design a highly selective and sensitive detection technique for lead(II) ions (Pb(2+)) detection was developed based on an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor, taking advantage of the high specificity of the aptamer for Pb(2+) and the use of both intermolecular and intramolecular co-reaction to achieve signal enhancement. For sensing interface construction, L-cysteine (Cys) and gold nanostructured layers were electrodeposited on the electrode surface successively, which afforded a large surface area to anchor massive thiol-terminated auxiliary probes (APs) via a thiol-Au interaction. Then, a DNA duplex was generated based on the hybridization of the APs with capture probes (CPs, Pb(2+) specific aptamers). In the presence of Pb(2+), Pb(2+)-induced aptamers were released from the DNA duplex via the formation of a Pb(2+)-stabilized G-quadruplex, accompanied by leaving the single CPs on the sensing interface. Herein, the ruthenium(ii) complexes with functional groups of -COOH (Ru-COOH) were covalently bonded on the polyamidoamine dendrimers with amine end groups (PAMAM), which were capped by the high-index-faceted Au nanoparticles (HIFAuNPs) to obtain the ECL signal labels of Ru-PAMAM-HIFAuNPs. Then, the detection probes (DPs) of amino-terminated Pb(2+) specific aptamers were tagged with the Ru-PAMAM-HIFAuNPs. It was demonstrated that the covalent bonding of PAMAM and Ru-COOH could generate a self-enhanced ECL luminophore by an intramolecular co-reaction and the use of a Cys layer modified electrode could enhance the ECL by the intermolecular co-reaction of Cys and Ru-COOH, which lead to a significant enhancement of the ECL response. Based on this analytical method, the ECL signal increased with Pb(2+) concentration which presented a linear relationship in the range 1.0 × 10(-13)-1.0 × 10(-7) M with the detection limit of 4.0 × 10(-14) M. The proposed approach was also successfully utilized for the determination of Pb(2+) in soil samples.

Highly efficient electrogenerated chemiluminescence quenching of PEI enhanced Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ nanocomposite by hemin and Au@CeO₂ nanoparticles

In this work, a new signal amplified strategy based on the quenching effect of hemin and Au nanoparticles decorated CeO2 nanoparticles (Au@CeO2 NPs) for ultrasensitive detection of thrombin (TB) is reported for the first time. Herein, the poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) enhanced Ru(bpy)3(2+) nanocomposite was implemented by direct chemical polymerization, which could provide the desirable enhanced initial ECL signal. Furthermore, the detection aptamer of thrombin (TBA 2) was immobilized on Au@CeO2 NPs to form TBA 2/Au@CeO2 conjugates. Then, the G-rich DNA of TBA 2 sequence could fold into a G-quadruplex structure to embed hemin to obtain the quenching probe of hemin/TBA 2/Au@CeO2 conjugates. In the presence of target TB, the sandwiched structure could be formed between capture aptamer (TBA 1), TB and hemin/TBA 2/Au@CeO2 conjugates, thereby resulting in a proportional quenching in ECL response with TB, due to the quenching of both hemin and Au@CeO2 NPs. As a result, the signal-off aptasensor showed a wider linear range response from 10(-13) to 10(-8) M with lower detection limit of 0.03 pM.

Cathodic electrochemiluminescence immunosensor based on nanocomposites of semiconductor carboxylated g-C3N4 and graphene for the ultrasensitive detection of squamous cell carcinoma antigen

A novel label-free electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunosensor was developed for the detection of squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA) based on nanocomposites of semiconductor carboxylated graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) and graphene (g-C3N4-graphene). The ECL intensity of carboxylated g-C3N4 was much enhanced after being combined with graphene which had excellent electron-transfer ability. The sensing platform was constructed by depositing g-C3N4-graphene on electrodes and immobilizing antibodies on the surface of carboxylated g-C3N4 through amidation. The specific immunoreaction between SCCA and antibody resulted in the decrease of ECL intensity and the intensity decreased linearly with the logarithm of SCCA concentration in the range of 0.025-10 ng mL(-1) with a detection limit of 8.53 pg mL(-1). The developed ECL immunosensor exhibited high sensitivity, good reproducibility and long-term stability, which possessed great potential for cancer detection in clinical laboratory diagnosis.

Quantum dot enabled molecular sensing and diagnostics

Since its emergence, semiconductor nanoparticles known as quantum dots (QDs) have drawn considerable attention and have quickly extended their applicability to numerous fields within the life sciences. This is largely due to their unique optical properties such as high brightness and narrow emission band as well as other advantages over traditional organic fluorophores. New molecular sensing strategies based on QDs have been developed in pursuit of high sensitivity, high throughput, and multiplexing capabilities. For traditional biological applications, QDs have already begun to replace traditional organic fluorophores to serve as simple fluorescent reporters in immunoassays, microarrays, fluorescent imaging applications, and other assay platforms. In addition, smarter, more advanced QD probes such as quantum dot fluorescence resonance energy transfer (QD-FRET) sensors, quenching sensors, and barcoding systems are paving the way for highly-sensitive genetic and epigenetic detection of diseases, multiplexed identification of infectious pathogens, and tracking of intracellular drug and gene delivery. When combined with microfluidics and confocal fluorescence spectroscopy, the detection limit is further enhanced to single molecule level. Recently, investigations have revealed that QDs participate in series of new phenomena and exhibit interesting non-photoluminescent properties. Some of these new findings are now being incorporated into novel assays for gene copy number variation (CNV) studies and DNA methylation analysis with improved quantification resolution. Herein, we provide a comprehensive review on the latest developments of QD based molecular diagnostic platforms in which QD plays a versatile and essential role.