Lanthanide luminescent sensors for colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescence dual-readout detection of tyrosinase activity by introducing characteristic reaction followed by inhibition assay

As the biomarker of dermatoses, tyrosinase (TYR) has various biological functions by regulating the production of melanin. Here, we proposed lanthanide luminescent sensors for colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescence dual-readout detection of TYR activity by introducing a characteristic blue fluorescence reaction. With the increase of TYR, the fluorescence signals of lanthanide luminescent probes (dipicolinic acid (DPA)-Eu, DPA-Tb, and DPA-Eu/Tb) are decreased, while the blue signal is turned “on”, which improves the sensitivity and selectivity of ratiometric fluorescence sensing, with good linear range and low detection limit (0.05 U mL−1 for the DPA-Eu system or DPA-Tb system, 0.01 U mL−1 for the DPA-Eu/Tb system). In addition, colorimetric analysis of TYR is achieved by recording the absorbance value at 420 nm (The linear range of three system is 0.5–40 U mL−1). Moreover, the color changes under natural light and chromaticity changes under UV light facilitate the visual and qualitative analysis of TYR. Furthermore, the lanthanide sensors enable precise quantification of TYR in real samples. Subsequently, arbutin as an inhibitor sufficiently inhibited TYR activity, and arbutin was detected by “turn-off” fluorescence mode. More importantly, this study not only realizes dual-mode detection and inhibition of TYR activity, but also broadens the application of TYR detection in medical research and cosmetics industry, as well as provides a new idea for designing optical sensors.