Electrochemiluminescence Biosensor Based on Dual-Signal Regulation of Gold Nanoclusters for Amyloid-β Protein Detection

  • Anal Chem. 2026 Mar 10;98(9):6813-6822. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c07069.
Qingfei He  1 ,  Lingjun Cheng  1 ,  Yuanyuan Yang  1 ,  Zhiyan Zou  1 ,  Canping Su  1 ,  Xuan Shi  1 ,  Jiaming Chen  1 ,  Weirong Huang  2 ,  Zhenyu Lin  3 ,  Guolin Hong  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Genetic Testing, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian 361005, China.
  • 2. Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, School of Medicine, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361003, China.
  • 3. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Analytical Science of Food Safety and Biology, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Analysis and Detection for Food Safety, Department of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350116, China.
PMID: 41747767 DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c07069
Abstract

Gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) are emerging electrochemiluminescence (ECL) emitters with unique luminescence and high stability. However, conventional AuNC-based ECL systems, which rely on single-signal regulation, often exhibit weak signal responses and limited stability. To address the challenge of detecting extremely low concentrations of the Alzheimer's disease (AD) blood biomarker Aβ40, this study presents a novel ECL-based biosensing platform that leverages dual-signal regulation of AuNCs via glutathione (GSH) and H2O2 serving as ECL quenchers. Based on the peroxidase-like activity of the Aβ40-hemin complex, this system restores the ECL signal by catalyzing the consumption reaction between GSH and H2O2. Using this mechanism, a dual-regulation ECL platform was developed, demonstrating a linear detection range of 0.001-100 ng/mL for Aβ40 with a detection limit of 0.18 pg/mL (S/N = 3). This approach not only offers high sensitivity and specificity but also reduces the complexity of surface modification steps. Overall, this study advances ECL technology through dual regulation and provides a sensitive, practical, efficient, and reliable analytical method for early AD screening.

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