Distinguished by the coupled catalysis-facilitated
high turnover
and admirable specificity, enzyme cascades have sparked tremendous
attention in bioanalysis. However, three-enzyme cascade-based versatile
platforms have rarely been explored without resorting to tedious immobilization
procedures. Herein, we have demonstrated that formamide-converted
transition metal–nitrogen–carbon (f-MNC, M = Fe, Cu,
Mn, Co, Zn) with a high loading of atomically dispersed active sites
possesses intrinsic peroxidase-mimetic activity following the activity
order of f-FeNC > f-CuNC > f-MnNC > f-CoNC > f-ZnNC. Ulteriorly,
benefitting
from the greatest catalytic performance and explicit catalytic mechanism
of f-FeNC, versatile enzyme cascade-based colorimetric bioassays for
ultrasensitive detection of diabetes-related glucose and α-glucosidase
(α-Glu) have been unprecedentedly devised using f-FeNC-triggered
chromogenic reaction of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine
as an amplifier. Notably, several types of α-Glu substrates
can be effectively utilized in this three-enzyme cascade-based α-Glu
assay, and it can be further employed for screening α-Glu inhibitors
that are used as antidiabetic and antiviral drugs. These versatile
assays can also be extended to detect other H2O2-generating or -consuming biomolecules and other bioenzymes that
are capable of catalyzing glucose generation procedures. These nanozyme-involved
multienzyme cascades without intricate enzyme-engineering techniques
may provide a concept to facilitate the deployment of nanozymes in
celestial versatile bioassay fabrication, disease diagnosis, and biomedicine.
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