Peptide‐Functionalized Spherical Polyelectrolyte Nanobrushes for Real‐Time Sensing of Protease Activity

Magic nanobrush: We report an effective self-assembled spherical polyelectrolyte nanobrush (SPB) composites with peptides and demonstrate its feasibility in detecting protease activity in a homogeneous solution. This assay allows rapid and accurate determination of protease kinetic parameters as well as inhibition constants. The sensitivity can be significantly improved to 1.0×10−3 units (1.85∼5.55 nM) thrombin. Our results demonstrate that SPBs, as a new class of nanostructures, can provide an excellent platform for enzyme studies and molecular sensing development. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.