Zirconium ion-mediated assembly of a single quantum dot-based nanosensor for kinase assay

Abstract

We demonstrate the zirconium ion-mediated assembly of a single quantum dot (QD)-based nanosensor for accurate detection of protein kinases (PKA) and polynucleotide kinases (PNK). This nanosensor is very sensitive with a detection limit of 8.82 × 10⁻⁴ U mL⁻¹ for PKA and 1.40 × 10⁻⁵ U mL⁻¹ for PNK. Moreover, it can be used to analyze the enzyme kinetic parameters and screen the inhibitors of PKA and PNK, with potential applications in drug discovery and clinical diagnosis.