A fluorometric and optical signal dual-readout detection of alkaline phosphatase activity in living cells based on ATP-mediated porphyrin MOFs

[Display omitted] •For the first time, nanoscale chiral MOFs was developed to quantitatively detect ALP activity in living cells.•Fluorometric and optical signal dual-readout mode detection system showed ultrasensitive detection of ALP activity.•The detection limit was was significantly lower than the current detection system (0.0240 mU/mL and 0.0225 mU/mL).•Such chiral MOFs realized the integration of detection and imaging of ALP activity in living cells. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), as an important biomarker, is closely associated with various diseases. Therefore, detecting the ALP activity is of considerable importance to diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this study, we have first exploited porphyrin-adenosine triphosphate-based nanoscale chiral metal-organic framework (denoted as NPCN-222-ATP) for the quantitative determination the activity of ALP through fluorometric and optical signal dual-readout mode. In this detection system, the ALP-catalyzed hydrolysis of chiral ATP molecules leads to the recovery of the fluorescence of porphyrin, accompanied by the gradual decrease of the circular dichroism (CD) signal. This probe showed excellent selectivity and sensitivity for ALP activity with the limits of detection of 0.0240 mU/mL and 0.0225 mU/mL for the fluorometric and optical signal readout mode, respectively, which were significantly better than the current ALP detection system. More importantly, such chiral probe successfully realized the monitoring and imaging of ATP activity in living cells, providing a new way for chiral MOFs to be used in biological analysis and detection platform.