Biomimetic synthesis of protein-DNA-CaHPO4 hybrid nanosheets for biosensing: Detection of thrombin as an example

Traditional strategies for coupling of proteins with DNA involve the additional modifications on protein or DNA to construct protein-DNA conjugates, resulting in complex or time-consuming coupling process. This study presented a biomimetic synthesis strategy to elaborately synthesize a new type of biomolecule-inorganic hybrid nanosheets. Horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and DNA aptamer can be easily combined with CaHPO4 via coprecipitation simultaneously to form all-inclusive HRP-aptamer-CaHPO4 hybrid (HAC) nanosheets integrating bifunction of biorecognition and signal amplification, which was proceeded in the green environment at room temperature and required no additional modifications on CaHPO4, protein and DNA. Therefore, it avoided tedious linking and purification procedures. The HAC nanosheets were then employed as the signal labels and showed excellent performance for detecting thrombin. This bioinspired approach provides great possibilities to facile and efficient immobilization of protein, DNA or even other types of biomolecules (e.g., RNA and peptide) on inorganic nanomaterials and endows great potential in the preparation of a variety of multifunctional biomolecule-CaHPO4 two-dimensional (2D) nanobiohybrids for various applications extending from biosensing to energy, biomedicine, environmental science and catalysis.

Automated summary

This study introduces a new biomimetic synthesis strategy to efficiently synthesize a novel biomolecule-inorganic hybrid nanosheet without the need for additional modifications at room temperature. This method avoids the complex and time-consuming process of coupling proteins with DNA, showing great potential for wide applications.