Xiao Yuxiu's research group has made new progress in the bimodal detection of acetylcholinesterase activity

On December 4th, Analytical Chemistry, an internationally renowned journal in the field of analysis, published online the research results of Professor Xiao Yuxiu's research group of Wuhan University School of Pharmacy in the detection of fluorescence-photothermal bimodal acetylcholinesterase activity, with the paper "In Situ Formation ofo -Phenylenediamine Cascade Polymers Mediated by Metal? Organic Framework Nanozymes for Fluorescent and Photothermal Dual-Mode Assay of Acetylcholinesterase Activity" (https://doi.
org/10.
1021/acs.
analchem.
2c04218).

。 Li Shuo, a 2020 doctoral student at the School of Pharmacy of Wuhan University, and Wei Zhongyu, a 2021 master's student, co-authored the paper, followed by Dr.
Long Yu and Professor Xiao Yuxiu as the corresponding authors, and the School of Pharmacy of Wuhan University and Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University as the authors
.
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
.

Figure: MOF-nanoenzyme-mediated fluorescent-photothermal dual-mode acetylcholinesterase activity assay

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is a key enzyme in biological nerve conduction, and abnormal AChE activity in serum often reveals a range of neurodegenerative diseases, and it is important and challenging to develop more accurate and sensitive detection methods for AChE activity
.
Among them, the "fluorescence-photothermal" dual mode shows good prospects
in the detection of AChE activity because of its flexible changes and simple detection.
This work creatively uses copper-based metal-organic frameworks (Cu-BTC) as oxide-like nanoenzymes to catalyze the oxidation and polymerization of o-phenylenediamine (o PD) to form a cascade polymer in situ: oPD is first oxidized to oligomers with strong yellow fluorescence and further catalyzed into polymer nanoparticles
.
Importantly, oPD polymer nanoparticles have significant photothermal properties
.
J- aggregation between Cu-BTC-mediated strong fluorescent oligomers promotes the formation of nanoparticles with high photothermal performance, while thiocholine (AChE enzymatic hydrolysis reaction product) can effectively inhibit the catalytic activity of Cu-BTC, which in turn is reflected in the fluorescence and photothermal dual signal changes of o PD cascade polymer, thereby indirectly realizing the bimodal detection
of AChE activity.
To our knowledge, this is the first MOF-nanoenzyme-mediated fluorescent-photothermal bimodal enzyme activity assay
.
This work greatly broadens the library of organic polymer tools with fluorescent-photothermal properties, and provides new ideas
for the design of multimodal enzyme activity detection strategies, early diagnosis of AChE-related diseases and enzyme inhibitor drug screening.