Quantum/carbon dots-based fluorescent assays for enzyme activity

Enzymes, as biocatalysts, speed up chemical reactions to reach equilibrium in living organisms. The abnormal enzyme activity is closely related to many diseases, and they are regarded as biomarkers in clinical medicine. Thus, determination of enzyme activity has considerable importance. Among the developed methods, quantum/carbon dots (QDs/CDs)-based fluorescent sensors provide alternative platforms to monitor enzyme activity. Both quantum dots (QDs) and carbon dots (CDs) as excellent fluorescent materials possess outstanding photostability, tunable emission spectra and better biocompatibility. Thus, they present incomparable advantages in sensing. This review summarizes the advances in fluorescent assays design, sensing mechanism and corresponding applications of QDs/CDs-based fluorescent sensors for enzyme activity detection. Finally, challenges and development trends of QDs/CDs as enzymatic sensors are also discussed. We believe that this review will provide an insight for the development of novel fluorescent sensors for detection of enzyme activity. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.