Development of multifunctional enzymatic
nanomaterials with rapid
and sensitive characteristics for glutathione determination is extremely
urgent for early cancer diagnosis. Herein, a core–shell ultrasensitive
nanozyme (denoted as CPT/DM-FA) for triple-mode glutathione sensing
and specific in vitro cancer detection is constructed. The dendritic
mesoporous silica nanoparticle (DMSN) core not only acts as a camptothecin
carrier, but also offers the nanoplatform to synthesize the MnO2 shell. Due to the DMSN-regulated high dispersion of MnO2, the atomic utilization efficiency of MnO2 is
surprisingly enhanced, and leads to notable enzymatic activity with K
m 0.136 μM and V
max 0.59 μM/s. In addition, by integrating the quenching
ability based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer and oxidase-mimic-mediated 1O2, O2
– generation
of MnO2, the fluorescence, UV–vis, and colorimetric
method for glutathione sensing is established with a comprehensive
linear range from 2 to 250 μM and a limit of detection of 0.654
μM. Besides, after surface folic acid modification, the CPT/DM-FA
could also specifically detect cancer cells from 25 to 1 50 000
through the color reaction of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine.
We believe this nanozyme could afford a potential strategy to amplify
the nanozyme activity for further biomedical applications.