TUST School of Food Science and Engineering Advanced in Nanoenzyme-Assisted Food Safety Detection Research
Date：2025-06-20 | Source： | Author： | Page view：
Recently, the team led by Professors Pan Mingfei and Wang Shuo from our university published articles titled "Review:" in the Top international Food journals "Trends in Food Science & Technology" and "Food Chemistry" respectively. Review paper on Nanozyme-based point-of-care testing for portable and on-site monitoring of food contaminants and Fluorescent NH2-MIL-88(Fe)-stabilized PtNPs nanozyme for dual-channel “OFF-ON” simultaneous and visual detection of glyphosate and A research paper on "Pb2+ in agri-environments and foodstuffs". Li Huilin, a 2024 doctoral student from the College of Food Science and Engineering, is the first author. Professors Pan Mingfei and Wang Shuo are the co-corresponding authors. Tianjin University of Science and Technology is the sole author's institution.
Food safety, as a core issue in the field of public health, is closely linked to human health, economic development and social stability. At present, various types of pollution caused by human activities have led to the existence of harmful substances such as heavy metals, biological toxins and antibiotic residues in the environment and food chain, seriously threatening ecological and environmental security as well as human health. Nanozyme overcomes the problems of poor molecular stability and high production cost of natural enzymes. The point-of-care testing (POCT) technology based on it, with its advantages of convenience, rapidity, on-site presence and low cost, has also become an effective tool for food safety testing.
Figure 1. Graphic Abstract
Work One systematically summarizes the catalytic mechanisms of various nanozyme and their applications in the point-of-care detection of food contaminants, with a focus on elaborating the advantages of highly catalytically active nanozyme in enhancing the sensitivity and accuracy of POCT technology in the detection of food contaminants. It is also pointed out that by regulating the size and morphology of nanozyme or conducting surface functionalization design, its catalytic performance can be effectively optimized. The latest advancements in the field of artificial intelligence have made machine learning models transformative tools for the design and performance optimization of nanozymes. Through the in-depth integration of data analysis, machine learning algorithms and theoretical calculations, it helps researchers clarify the complex catalytic mechanism of nanozymes and achieve precise regulation of active sites, electronic structures and reaction pathways at the atomic scale.
Figure 2 Catalytic mechanism of nanozymes
Figure 3 Challenges and future prospects of POCT technology based on nanoenzymes in the monitoring of food contaminants
Nanozymes possess powerful and stable catalytic activity. When integrated into POCT devices, they can not only adapt to complex food matrix environments and accurately identify trace contaminants, but also achieve signal amplification, significantly enhancing the reliability and sensitivity of POCT detection. The review further demonstrates that POCT technology based on nanozyme, with its advantages of high sensitivity, high throughput, portability, on-site detection, and low cost, has become a powerful tool for food safety monitoring or pollutant detection, with great application prospects. At the same time, it also points out the technical challenges it faces and its future development direction.
Work Two designed and successfully constructed a dual-functional NH2-Mi-88 (Fe)@Pt nanoenzyme with both peroxidase-like activity and fluorescence characteristics. A dual-channel "OFF-ON" hydrogel sensing detection platform was developed, achieving synchronous visual detection of the pesticide glyphosate and the heavy metal Pb2+.
Figure 4 shows the simultaneous visual detection of glyphosate and Pb2+ by dual-channel "OFF-ON" hydrogel sensing based on NH2-MIL-88(Fe)@Pt nanoenzyme
In the dual-channel "OFF-ON" response mode constructed in the study, cysteamine (CA) can inhibit the oxidation reaction of TMB catalyzed by NH2-MIL-88(Fe)@Pt nanozyme through coordination, while chelation with Pb2+ can eliminate this inhibitory effect, thereby achieving specific and sensitive quantitative analysis of Pb2+. Its detection limit reaches 0.0049 μg/mL. The -NH2 groups enriched on the surface of NH2-MIL-88(Fe)@Pt nanoenzyme can induce fluorescence quenching through Lewis acid-base coordination induced by Cu2+. When glyphosate undergoes chelation with Cu2+, the fluorescence of the system is restored, thereby achieving quantitative detection of glyphosate, with a detection limit of 0.0082 μg/mL. Based on the above-mentioned nanoenzyme sensing mechanism, the research further developed an NH2-MIR-88 (Fe)@Pt nanoenzyme hydrogel detection platform integrated with smartphone image analysis, simultaneously achieving semi-quantitative visualization analysis of glyphosate and Pb2+.
Figure 5 (A) The "OFF-ON" mechanism of action among NH2-MIL-88(Fe)@Pt nanozyme, CA and Pb2+
The publication of the above two research achievements has provided new ideas and directions for the application and development of nanozyme in POCT technology and equipment, and is expected to promote further innovation in related technologies and be applied in fields such as agricultural environmental monitoring and food safety detection.
