Receptors are crucial to the analytical performance of
sensor arrays.
Different from the previous receptors in sensor arrays, herein, peroxidase-mimicking
DNAzymes were innovatively used as receptors to develop a label-free
chemiluminescence sensor array for discriminating various heavy metal
ions in complex samples. The peroxidase-mimicking DNAzymes are composed
of functional oligonucleotides and hemin, including G-triplex-hemin
DNAzyme (G3-DNAzyme), G-quadruplex-hemin DNAzyme (G4-DNAzyme), and
the dimer of G-quadruplex-hemin DNAzyme (dG4-DNAzyme). Circular dichroism
(CD) spectroscopy demonstrated that different metal ions diversely
affect the conformation of G-quadruplex and G-triplex, resulting in
a change in the activity of peroxidase-mimicking DNAzyme. Thus, the
unique fingerprints formed to easily discriminate seven kinds of heavy
metal ions by principal component analysis (PCA) within 20 min. The
discrimination of unknown metal ions in tap water further confirmed
its ability for discriminating multiple heavy metal ions. Moreover,
it will not bring water pollution due to the good biocompatibility
of DNA. Therefore, it not only merely offers a label-free, rapid,
environment-friendly, and cheap (1.49 $) sensor assay for discriminating
metal ions but also comes up with an innovative way for developing
sensor arrays.