An L012@PAni-PAAm hydrogel composite based-electrochemiluminescence biosensor for in situ detection of H2O2 released from cardiomyocytes

Abstract Detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) released from cardiomyocytes is vital for pathological and physiological studies of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) method has been widely utilized to monitor cellular H2O2 owing to its advantages of high sensitivity and specificity. In this work, we proposed a novel ECL biosensor based on an L012@PAni-PAAm hydrogel composite for in situ monitoring H2O2 produced from cardiomyocytes. Besides the decent porosity for cell adhesion, favorable biocompatibility for cell incubation and high permeability for H2O2 diffusion, the L012@PAni-PAAm hydrogel composite exhibited good conductivity for triggering ECL reaction and high detection sensitivity of H2O2. The L012@PAni-PAAm hydrogel composite-based ECL biosensor showed low background signal, good stability, high selectivity, wide detection range (0.01–50 μM) and high detection sensitivity (limit of detection of 2.9 nM) of H2O2. Thus, it was successfully applied to in situ detect H2O2 produced from cardiomyocytes. The ECL biosensor developed in our work can be used as a new highly sensitive biosensor for in situ detection of cellular H2O2 for physiological and pathological studies.