Luminescent Metal-Organic-Framework-Based Label-Free Assay of Polyphenol Oxidase with Fluorescent Scan

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are emerging in recent years as a kind of versatile fluorescent sensing materials, but their application to enzyme assays has rarely been studied. Here, the first example of a MOF-based label-free enzyme assay system is reported. A luminescent MOF was synthesized and applied to the activity analysis of polyphenol oxidase (PPO). With its distinct responses to the phenolic substrate and o-quinone product, this MOF could transduce the extent of PPO-catalyzed oxidation to fluorescence signal and enable the real-time monitoring of this reaction. Wide substrate adaptability and high sensitivity (detection limit=0.00012 U mL^-1 ) were exhibited by this method, which meets the requirement of common bioanalysis. Interestingly, by the comparison with molecular capturing reagents, the heterogeneous nature of this MOF-based assay effectively preventing the interaction with the enzyme was proven, thus ensuring the authenticity of results.