DNA Technology-assisted Signal Amplification Strategies in Electrochemiluminescence Bioanalysis

Abstract

Sensitive and accurate detection of biological analytes, such as proteins, genes, small molecules, ions, cells, etc., has been a significant project in life science. Signal amplification is one of the most effective approaches to improve the sensitivity of bioanalysis. Taking advantage of specific base pairing, programmable operation, and predictable assembly, DNA is flexible and suitable to perform the signal amplification procedure. In recent years, signal amplification strategies by means of DNA technology have been widely integrated into the construction of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) biosensors, achieving desirable analytical performance in clinical diagnosis, biomedical research, and drug development. To the best of our knowledge, these DNA signal amplification technologies mainly include classical polymerase chain reaction, and various amplification approaches conducted under mild conditions, such as rolling circle amplification (RCA) or hyperbranched RCA, cleaving enzyme-assisted amplification, DNAzyme-involved amplification, toehold-mediated DNA strand displacement amplification without enzyme participation, and so on. This review overviews the recent advancements of DNA signal amplification strategies for bioanalysis in the ECL realm, sketching the creative trajectory from strategies design to ultrasensitive ECL platform construction and resulting applications.

Europium Metal–Organic Framework with a Tetraphenylethylene-Based Ligand: A Dual-Mechanism Quenching Immunosensor for Enhanced Electrochemiluminescence via the Coordination Trigger

“…It is worth noting that ECL immunosensors have garnered significant attention in various fields owing to their robust stability, broad dynamic range, and ease of operation, which enable them to detect trace targets with high sensitivity and specificity. − As widely recognized, the exceptional sensitivity of ECL immunosensors is primarily attributed to outstanding luminophores . Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted substantial interest within the realm of ECL analytical sensors due to their advantages such as high porosity, ease of functionalization, and extremely high surface area. − MOFs are commonly utilized as matrices to immobilize classic ECL luminophores, including luminol and tris­(2,2′-bipyridyl)­ruthenium­(II) (Ru­(bpy) 3 2+ ) and its derivatives. − However, ECL nanocomposites prepared by postmodification or in situ growth still have some limitations for application in solution.…”

Catalyst‐Accelerated Circular Cascaded DNA Circuits: Simpler Design, Faster Speed, Higher Gain

“…Since the first hybridization-based DNA circuit was developed by Turberfield et al, [18] a series of different amplified DNA circuits have been developed, [19][20][21] including entropy-driven catalysis, [22,23] hybridization chain reaction (HCR), [24] and catalyzed hairpin assembly (CHA). [25] These nonenzymatic DNA circuits have been proven particularly useful to amplified detection of nucleic acid and non-nucleic acid targets via being adapted to fluorescent, [26][27][28][29][30][31] electrochemiluminescent, [32][33][34][35] electrochemical, [36,37] or colorimetric signals. [38][39][40] Interestingly, the DNA circuits possess the ability of modularization and scalability, only ensuring that the product of the upstream circuit can initiate the downstream circuit.…”

Preparation of a disposable electrochemiluminescence sensor chip based on an MXene-loaded ruthenium luminescent agent and its application in the detection of carcinoembryonic antigens

“…Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) is considered as a simple, sensitive and accurate electrochemical reaction analysis tool that has been widely used in immunoassay and DNA probes. [10][11][12][13][14] It has many advantages such as high sensitivity, wide linear ranges, simple operation and low background signals. A Ru complex system plays an important role in ECL application due to its high luminescence efficiency, good water solubility, high stability, reversible single electron transfer reaction and repeatable excitation ability.…”