The TDs/aptamer cTnI biosensors based on HCR and Au/Ti3C2-MXene amplification for screening serious patient in COVID-19 pandemic

The accurate assay of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) is very important for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), it also can be employed as an effective index for screening serious patients in COVID-19 pandemic before fatal heart injury to reduce the mortality. A ratiometric sensing strategy was proposed based on electrochemiluminescent (ECL) signal of doxorubicin (Dox)-luminol or the electrochemical (EC) signal of methylene blue (MB) vs. referable EC signal of Dox. The bio-recognitive Tro4-aptamer ensures the high specificity of the sensor by affinity binding to catch cTnI, and the tetrahedral DNA (TDs) on Au/Ti3C2-MXene built an excellent sensing matrix. An in situ hybrid chain reaction (HCR) amplification greatly improved the sensitivity. The ratiometric sensing responses ECL (Dox-luminol)/Current (Dox) or Current (MB)/Current (Dox) linearly regressed to cTnI concentration in the range of 0.1 fM-1 pM or 0.1 fM-500 fM with the limit of detection (LOD) as 0.04 fM or 0.1 fM, respectively. Served as the reference signal, Current (Dox) reflected the variation of sensor, it is very effective to ensure the accuracy of detection to obviate the false results. The proposed biosensors show good specificity, sensitivity, reproducibility and stability, have been applied to determine cTnI in real samples with satisfactory results. They are worth looking forward to be used for screening serious patient of COVID-19 to reduce the mortality, especially in mobile cabin hospital.

Automated summary

The study introduces a ratiometric sensing strategy for accurate measurement of cTnI concentration and screening of critically ill patients in the COVID-19 pandemic, showing good specificity, sensitivity, reproducibility, and stability in experiments.