Monitoring Methionine Decarboxylase by a Supramolecular Tandem Assay

Methionine is an essential amino acid involved in many physiological and pathological processes. Methionine starvation caused by methionine decarboxylase (MetDC) degradation becomes a promising strategy for cancer treatment. Multistep colorimetric method, the present approach to monitor the MetDC activity, possesses drawbacks of the complicated process, low accuracy, and poor anti-interference due to indirect detection. Herein, we report a facile and easy-to-use supramolecular tandem assay (STA) with the cucurbit[7]uril and acridine orange reporter pair for the direct and real-time monitoring of MetDC activity. This strategy not only provides a feasible method for enzymatic activity detection but also establishes the capability of inhibitor screening.