Au/Ag@ZIF-8 nanocomposite as solid phase extraction adsorbent and SERS substrate for tacrolimus label-free therapeutic drug monitoring in human serum

Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) has been extensively utilized in therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) due to its rapid detection speed, high sensitivity and straightforward sample pretreatment. In this study, Au/AgNPs were obtained through the reduction of AgNO 3 on the surface of AuNPs. Subsequently, Au/AgNPs were embedded into the tetrahedral lattice of ZIF-8 MOFs, resulting in the formation of Au/Ag@ZIF-8 nanocomposites. The Au/Ag@ZIF-8 nanocomposites exhibit a robust electromagnetic enhancement of Au/Ag bimetallic nanoparticles and a considerable adsorption capacity of ZIF-8 MOFs. This enables the pre-enrichment of target molecules in the vicinity of the electromagnetic field of the Au/AgNPs, thereby enhancing the sensitivity of SERS detection. The SERS substrate also exhibits high stability and reproducibility, as well as molecular sieving effects, due to the fact that Au/AgNPs are embedded into the tetrahedral lattice of ZIF-8. A TDM method for tacrolimus (FK506) in human serum was developed by using Au/Ag@ZIF-8 nanocomposites as solid phase extraction (SPE) adsorbent and SERS substrates. The results showed that under the optimized conditions, tacrolimus exhibited satisfactory linearity within the concentration range of 10 −5 -10 −11  mol L −1 , with a correlation coefficient (R 2 ) of 0.9944, and the limit of detection (LOD) was as low as 6.4 pg mL −1 . The recoveries were observed to range between 92 % and 105 %, with an RSD of below 8 %. The method is highly sensitive, exhibiting a sensitivity that is 3-6 orders of magnitude higher than that of existing analytical techniques. It has the potential to be applied in a clinical setting to biological samples.