Turn-on fluorescence detection of β-glucuronidase using RhB@MOF-5 as an ultrasensitive nanoprobe

β-Glucuronidase (β-GCU) is closely related to the occurrence of multiple diseases, and it has been applied as a biomarker and therapeutic target in clinical diagnosis. However, reliable methods with high selectivity and sensitivity for monitoring β-GCU are still lacked. Herein, we designed a novel fluorescent nanoprobe, rhodamine B encapsulated MOF-5 ([email protected]) for the first time, to detect β-GCU through the synergistic effect of inner filter effect (IFE) and static quenching effect (SQE) by employing 4-nitrophenyl-β-D-glucuronide (PNPG) as the substrate. After encapsulating into MOF-5, the fluorescence emission of RhB at 550 nm excited by 320 nm was greatly enhanced. The major overlap between the fluorescence excitation spectrum of [email protected] (about 320 nm) and the ultraviolet absorption spectrum of PNPG (about 310 nm) lead to PNPG being a good IFE absorber in this sensing system. Under the optimized conditions, the excitation spectrum of the [email protected] could be absorbed by PNPG, resulting in the dramatically decrease of fluorescence emission. After adding β-GCU into the system, the substrate of PNPG would be enzymatic hydrolyzed to p-nitrophenol (PNP) and glucose, then the IFE disappearance and the fluorescence recovered. The current sensing platform was interference-free and exhibited a broad linearity relationship for β-GCU range of 0.1–10 U L−1 (R2 = 0.9957) with a limit of detection as low as 0.03 U L−1, which was reduced by more than one orders compared with the reported methods. Moreover, the encapsulation of dyes using porous nanoparticles to achieve some tailor-made characteristics will enrich experimental design inspiration.