Electrochemical procalcitonin immunoassay based on Au@Ag heterojunction nanorods as labels and CeO2-CuO nanorods as enhancer.

• A sandwich-type immunosensor for detection of PCT was designed. • CeO 2 -CuO-Au as platform can promote electron transfer. • Au@Ag-Th as signal labels can further effectually amplify the current signal. • The immunosensor presents prominent performance for PCT detection. Procalcitonin (PCT) is a kind of protein exists in the human blood. If the human bodies are infected with bacteria, fungi or parasites, the value of PCT in blood will be significantly raised. Thereby, we report an electrochemical immunosensor for measurement of PCT using gold nanoparticle (Au NP) decorated CeO 2 -CuO (CeO 2 -CuO-Au) as the platform and thionine modified Au@Ag heterojunction nanorods (Au@Ag-Th) as signal labels. Au NP decorated CeO 2 -CuO exhibits high surface area, high activity and good biocompatibility, which can immobilize more primary antibodies and promote electron transfer. The Au@Ag-Th provides good active sites to link secondary antibodies, further effectually amplify the current signal. This immunosensor exhibits a well-pleasing response with a limit detection of 0.17 pg mL−1 and linear detection between 0.5 pg mL−1 and 50 ng mL−1. Meanwhile, the high sensitivity, excellent specificity and acceptable human serum samples testing results of this method lead to potential applications in diagnosis of bacterial infections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]