A ratiometric electrochemiluminescence resonance energy transfer platform based on novel dye BODIPY derivatives for sensitive detection of lactoferrin

A ratiometric electrochemiluminescence resonance energy transfer (ECL-RET) platform depended on novel dye BODIPY derivatives was proposed for rapid detection of lactoferrin. This ECL-RET platform is composed of aptamer decorated BODIPY composites and C60@BSA, in which BODIPY derivative is the ECL probe and can generate significant resonance energy transfer with K2S2O8. BODIPY derivative and K2S2O8 are used as built-in reference signal and calibration signal respectively to eliminate background signal and abnormal change signal by double signal self-calibration process. At the same time, C60, as the accelerator of K2S2O8, can effectively increase the ECL signal and further transfer as much energy as possible to BODIPY derivative. Under optimal conditions, the constructed ECL-RET platform exhibited sensitive detection of lactoferrin in the wide linear range of 10-4- 850 ng/mL with a LOD of 42 fg/mL. Meanwhile, the proposed ECL-RET aptasensor demonstrated superior stability, specificity and reproducibility, displaying favorable application value in practical diagnosis of this method.