Sensitive electrochemiluminescence immunosensor based on a novel luminescent europium metal-organic framework and antenna effect for detecting pro-gastrin-releasing peptide.

Sensitive detection of pro-gastrin-releasing peptide (Pro-GRP) is crucial because it is a highly sensitive and specific tumor marker for small cell lung cancer. Herein, we synthesized an efficient luminescent europium metal-organic framework and developed a sandwich ECL immunosensor for the sensitive detection of Pro-GRP, which used Eu as the central ion and 2,4,6-tri (4-carboxyphenyl)-1,3,5-triazine (H3TATB) as the organic ligand. H3TATB acted as a strong absorbing reagent and transferred its energy to Eu via the antenna effect to enhance the ECL response signal of Eu. As per calculations, the ECL efficiency of Eu-TATB, which was a promising ECL luminophore, was up to 130 %. The Cu2O cube worked as a substrate to assist the electron transfer and was used as a co-reaction accelerator to catalyze SO to produce more SO4 and then enhance the ECL intensity of Eu-TATB. Under optimal experimental conditions, the ECL immunosensor had a linear range of 5 fg mL-50 ng mL for detecting Pro-GRP with a detection limit of 1.6 fg mL; moreover, it demonstrated excellent stability and specificity and has been successfully applied for detecting Pro-GRP in the human serum.