Novel Sensitive Fluorometric Determination of Exonuclease I Using Polydopamine Nanospheres

A novel fluorescence sensing platform based on polydopamine nanospheres and 6′-carboxyfluorescein labeled single-stranded DNA has been developed for monitoring the concentration of exonuclease I. Due to the interaction between single-stranded DNA and polydopamine nanospheres, the single-stranded DNA may be adsorbed on the surface of polydopamine nanospheres. The fluorescence of 6′-carboxyfluorescein was subsequently quenched by the polydopamine nanospheres through energy transfer or electron transfer. However, the 6′-carboxyfluorescein-labeled single-stranded DNA was specifically degraded by exonuclease I, producing mono or oligonucleotide fragments, which were not adsorbed by the polydopamine nanospheres, and thus the fluorescence signal was retained. The retained fluorescence of the sensing platform was found to be linear with the concentration of exonuclease I in the range of 0.15–10 U mL−1 with a detection limit of 0.05 U mL−1. In addition, the sensing platform was highly selective toward exonuclease I. Benefiting from the high efficiency and the simple design process, satisfactory performance has been successfully demonstrated for the determination of exonuclease I in complex samples.