Ratiometric antifouling electrochemical biosensors based on designed Y-shaped peptide and MXene loaded with Au@ZIF-67 and methylene blue.

Abstract

Based on the designed inverted Y-shaped peptide and MXene nanocomposite (MXene-Au@ZIF-67), a ratiometric anti-pollution electrochemical biosensor was designed and applied to the detection of biomarkers in serum. Au@ZIF-67 inserted into the interior of MXene can not only prevent the accumulation of MXene but also provide a large amounts of binding sites for capturing biomolecules. A designed multifunctional Y-shaped peptide containing anchoring, antifouling, and recognition sequences was anchored onto MXene-Au@ZIF-67 through Au-S bonds. Electrochemical signal molecules, ferrocenecarboxylic acid (Fc) and methylene blue (MB), were modified to another end of multifunctional peptide and interior of MXene-Au@ZIF-67, respectively, to produce aratiometric electrochemical signal. We selected prostate specific antigen (PSA) as the modelcompound. PSA specifically recognizes and cleaves the recognition segment in the Y-shaped peptide, and the signal of Fc is reduced, while the signal of MB remains unchanged. The ratiometric strategy endows the present biosensorhigh accuracy and sensitivity with adetection limit of 0.85pg/mL. In addition, the sensing surface has good antifouling ability due to the antifouling sequence of the two branching parts of the Y-shaped peptide. More importantly, by replacing the recognition segment of peptides alsoother targetsare accessible, indicating the potential application of the universal detection strategy tothe detection of various biomarkers in clinical diagnosis.