A visualized colorimetric detection strategy for heparin in serum using a metal-free polymer nanozyme

Abstract

A metal-free polymer nanozyme has been developed for the first time simply via the one-pot covalent reaction of hyperbranched polyethyleneimine (PEI) and redox dihydroxybenzaldehyde (DHB). The yielded PEI-DHB nanoparticles could display the peroxidase-like catalysis activity, so as to act as the metal-free nanozyme in catalyzing the chromogenic reactions of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine and H2O2. More interestingly, the catalysis activity of the polymer nanozymes could be specifically inhibited by heparin oppositely charged. A facile visualized colorimetric method was thereby developed for sensing heparin through combining the specific catalysis and electrostatic attraction of PEI-DHB nanozyme. It was found that the developed colorimetric method can enable the detection of heparin in serum over the linear concentration range of 0.050–1.0 μM, promising the wide applications for the detection of heparin in the clinical laboratory for the disease diagnostics and pharmacological monitoring. More importantly, such a green synthesis method may be tailored for fabricating various metal-free polymer nanozymes for the wide catalysis applications.