A chemiluminescence assay for L-histidine based on controlled DNAzyme catalytic reactions on magnetic microparticles

Abstract

We describe a chemiluminescence (CL) assay for L-histidine that is based on the use of DNAzyme covalently immobilized on 1.5-μm sized magnetic beads. On addition of a substrate labeled with a CL reagent, the DNAzyme and substrate form a stable duplex by allosteric synergetic stabilization of each duplex. If L-histidine is added to this system, self-cleavage of the substrate occurs through catalytic reaction and results in the formation of two fragments which dissociate from the beads. After removal of the magnetic beads, the labeled fragments can be detected by CL whose intensity is linearly related to the concentration of L-histidine in the 1.0 to 1,000 nM range. The detection limit is 0.3 nM, and the RSD is 3.4 % at a 50 nM level (n = 9). The method has been successfully applied to the determination of L-histidine in spiked human serum samples and holds promise as a widely applicable general platform for DNAzyme-based CL detection of small organic molecules and of metal ions.