Abstract
Ultrasensitive and rapid quantification of the universal energy currency adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is an extremely critical mission in clinical applications. In this work, a "signal-off" photoelectrochemical (PEC) biosensor was designed for ultrasensitive ATP detection based on a fullerene (C)-decorated Au nanoparticle@MoS (C-Au NP@MoS) composite material as a signal indicator and a p-type PbS quantum dot (QD) as an efficient signal quencher. Modification of wide band gap C with narrow band gap MoS to form an ideal PEC signal indicator was proposed, which could significantly improve photocurrent conversion efficiency, leading to a desirable PEC signal. In the presence of p-type PbS QDs, the PEC signal of n-type C-Au NP@MoS was effectively quenched because p-type PbS QDs could compete with C-Au NP@MoS to consume light energy and electron donor. Besides, the conversion of a limited amount of target ATP into an amplified output PbS QD-labeled short DNA sequence (output S) was achieved via target-mediated aptazyme cycling amplification strategy, facilitating ultrasensitive ATP detection. The proposed signal-off PEC strategy exhibited a wide linear range from 1.00 × 10 pM to 100 nM with a low detection limit of 3.30 fM. Importantly, this proposed strategy provides a promising platform to detect ATP at ultralow levels and has potential applications, including diagnosis of ATP-related diseases, monitoring of diseases progression and evaluation of prognosis.