Dendritic chain reaction: Responsive release of hydrogen peroxide upon generation and enzymatic oxidation of methanol

Signal amplification dramatically increases the sensitivity of diagnostic methods. Recently, we introduced a new technique for signal amplification that uses a distinctive dendritic chain reaction (DCR) to generate exponential evolution of a diagnostic signal. In this report, we demonstrate how the modular design of our DCR probe can be used to improve the detection sensitivity. We synthesized a new probe based on a methyl carbonate linkage, which has superior stability in aqueous media. Triggered release of methanol, which was oxidized by alcohol oxidase present in the solution, produced hydrogen peroxide that used as a reagent in the DCR amplification technique. The new probe exhibited higher sensitivity in detection of hydrogen peroxide than our previously reported probe. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.