A magnetic dual-aptamer electrochemical sensor with MOF-on-MOF-derived electrocatalyst as a signal amplifier for sensitive detection of cardiac troponin I

Considering the close association between cardiac troponin I (cTnI) level and various cardiovascular diseases, it becomes essential to explore sensitive and accurate detection methods for monitoring their levels in the early stages of disease. In this work, a magnetic dual-aptamer electrochemical sensor for cTnI detection was constructed in the first utilizing MOF-on-MOF-derived electrocatalyst as a signal amplifier in collaboration with high-efficient separation of magnetic beads (MBs). Employing zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 (ZIF-67) with high surface area as host MOF, MOF-on-MOF heterostructure (ZIF-67@PBA) was facilely prepared by in-situ growth of conductive prussian blue analogue (PBA) as guest MOF onto the surface of ZIF-67 with a simple ion-exchange method. After low-temperature calcination, N doped derived electrocatalyst (N-ZIF-67@PBA) was obtained with intact skeletons and pore structures of MOFs. This not only integrated bimetallic active centers with various valence states and diversiform nanostructures of dual MOF, but endowed N-ZIF-67@PBA 8.3-fold increase of electrocatalytic activity for catalytic amplification. Further using aptamer-modified MBs as capture carriers for recognizing and separating cTnI from complex samples with high specificity, the magnetic dual-aptamer sensor successfully achieved the sensitive detection of cTnI with a low detection limit of 0.31 fg/mL. This work provided a new viewpoint on the use of MOF-on-MOF-derived electrocatalyst for ultrasensitive electrochemical sensing analysis.