Heterojunction MnO2-nanosheet-decorated Ag nanowires with enhanced oxidase-like activity for the sensitive dual-mode detection of glutathione

The biocatalytic design of nanomaterials with enzyme-like activity is considered a reliable and promising toolkit for the generation of diagnostic agents in complex biological microenvironments. However, the preparation of nanomaterials while maintaining a high catalytic activity in tumor cells (pH 6.0-6.5) poses a prominent challenge. Herein, we constructed a biomimetic enzyme-trigged dual-mode system with colorimetry at 652 nm and photothermal biosensors to detect glutathione based on hollow MnO2-nanosheet-decorated Ag nanowires (Ag@MnO2) as an oxidase-like nanozyme. As expected, Ag@MnO2 catalyzed the oxidation of 3,3 ',5,5 '-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the absence of H2O2, leading to a blue-colored oxidized TMB (oxTMB) that displayed oxidase-like activity in pH 6.0. Interestingly, the portable dual-mode colorimetry and photothermal method for GSH was developed based on the redox reaction between GSH and oxTMB. This detection method exhibited a wide linear range of 0.1-55 mu M for GSH with a low detection limit of 0.08 mu M. This work highlights a new insight into nanotechnology by taking advantage of biomimetic design in biological analysis.

Automated summary

A biomimetic enzyme-triggered dual-mode system was constructed using Ag@MnO2 nanomaterials as oxidase-like nanozyme, enabling the preparation of nanomaterials with high catalytic activity in tumor cells (pH 6.0-6.5). A portable dual-mode colorimetry and photothermal method was developed for detecting glutathione, showing a wide linear range and low detection limit.