A Sensitive Electrochemiluminescence Urea Sensor for Dynamic Monitoring of Urea Transport in Living Cells

A multiple signal-amplified electrochemiluminescence (ECL) urea sensor was designed based on a self-enhanced probe and SiO2 photonic crystals for dynamic tracking of urea transmembrane transport. The self-enhanced probe (AuNR@Ru-LA) prepared by loading polyethyleneimine (PEI), lactobionic acid (LA), and Ru­(dcbpy)3 2+ on gold nanorods (AuNRs) generated an initial ECL signal, and then the intensity was multiple-amplified by the enhanced light-scattering effect of SiO2 photonic crystals and the co-reaction with urea. The as-prepared sensor exhibited excellent performance for the detection of urea in the range of 1.0 × 10–10 to 1.0 × 10–4 M with a detection limit of 8.8 × 10–11 M at (3σ)/S. The AuNR@Ru-LA probes were labeled on HepG2 cells to construct a cytosensor with a detection range of 1.0 × 103 to 2.0 × 106 cells mL–1. In addition, the dynamic changes of the extracellular urea concentration were tracked by monitoring the ECL signal of the cytosensor to study urea transmembrane transport. The developed strategy realized the amplification of multiple ECL signals and the tracking of urea transmembrane transport, which provided a novel dynamic detection method for small biomolecules.