“Lighting-up” curcumin nanoparticles triggered by pH for developing improved enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

In the field of precision medicine, the anticipated features of ideal drug delivery systems (DDS) have high drug loading capacity and effective stimuli-triggered mechanism, which are fitting well with the expected merits of signal labels for enhanced enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Inspired by this, poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride)-capped curcumin nanoparticles (PDDA@CUR NPs) with high loading capacity were synthesized as signal labels and further applied to dual-model colorimetric and fluorescence ELISA for the detection of C-reactive protein (CRP). Curcumin (CUR) was elaborately selected as report molecule similar to the roles of drugs in DDS, which dispersed in neutral water exhibits a negligible fluorescence response due to the aggregation of CUR molecules induced quenching effect, stimulated by basic water (BW, pH 12.36), the allochroic effect from colorless to orange occurred and fluorescence restored because of the keto–enol tautomerism in the molecular structure of CUR, just like lighting-up (from signal “OFF” to signal “ON”), yielded a dual-model colorimetric and fluorescent signal readout. PDDA, as a polycationic electrolyte, provided a biological platform that is capable of interacting with CRP label antibodies by virtue of its positive centers. The results show that “lighting-up” CUR NPs-based dual-modal colorimetric and fluorescent ELISA for CRP detection has the merits of easy-to-use, good enough sensitivity and reliability. And more importantly, it brings innovative ideas for the precise identification and quantification of protein biomarkers.