Being an important model peroxidase, horseradish peroxidase (HRP) has been thoroughly understood, and the detection of HRP is not only directly related to peroxidase-triggered catalytic process, but also linked to the development of HRP-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Herein, we have reported an unconventional fluorescent sensor for convenient assay of HRP activity based on the HRP-catalyzed specific conversion of p-phenylenediamine (PPD) into chromogenic PPDox with H2O2 as the oxidizing agent, accompanied by the fluorescence quenching effect on fluorescein. By combining UV-vis absorption spectrum, isothermal titration calorimetry, and fluorescence lifetime analysis, we have confirmed the inner filter effect as a main quenching mechanism in our proposed fluorescent assay. According to the intrinsic sensitivity of fluorescent sensor and high selectivity, our PPD/fluorescein-based sensing system can be utilized for real-time monitoring of the HRP activity in real biological samples. Furthermore, the unambiguous response mechanism and excellent sensing performance encourage us to extend such HRP assay into the HRP-based fluorescent ELISA, which has a broad prospect of application in fluorescent diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by sensing alpha-fetoprotein, the well-known serologic HCC marker.
Keywords: alpha-fetoprotein; fluorescein; fluorescent ELISA; fluorescent sensor; inner filter effect; p-phenylenediamine.