A pH-responsive colorimetric strategy for DNA detection by acetylcholinesterase catalyzed hydrolysis and cascade amplification

A pH-responsive colorimetric strategy was designed for sensitive and convenient biosensing by introducing acetylcholinesterase (AChE) catalyzed hydrolysis of acetylcholine to change solution pH and phenol red as an indicator. Using DNA as a target model, this technique was successfully employed for sensitive DNA analysis by labeling AChE to DNA. The sensitivity could be greatly improved by coupling a newly designed magnetic probe with target DNA-triggered nonenzymatic cascade amplification. In the presence of a help DNA (H) and the functional probe, the cascade assembly via toehold-mediated strand displacement released the AChE-conjugated sequence from magnetic beads, which could be simply separated from the reaction mixture to catalyze the hydrolysis of ACh in detection solution. The color change of detection solution from pink to orange-red, orange-yellow and ultimately yellow could be used for target DNA detection by naked eye and colorimetry with the absorbance ratio of detection solution at 558 nm to 432 nm as the signal. The nonenzymatically sensitized colorimetric strategy showed a linear range from 50 pM to 50 nM with a detection limit of 38 pM, indicating a promising application in DNA analysis.