Sensing parts-per-trillion Cd(2+), Hg(2+), and Pb(2+) collectively and individually using phosphorothioate DNAzymes.

Cadmium, mercury, and lead are collectively banned by many countries and regions in electronic devices due to their extremely high toxicity. To date, no sensing method can detect them as a group and also individually with sufficient sensitivity and selectivity. An RNA-cleaving DNAzyme (Ce13d) was recently reported to be active with trivalent lanthanides, which are hard Lewis acids. In this work, phosphorothioate (PS) modifications were systematically made on Ce13d. A single PS modification at the substrate cleavage site shifts the activity from being dependent on lanthanides to soft thiophilic metals. By incorporating the PS modification to another DNAzyme, a sensor array was prepared to detect each metal. Individual sensors have excellent sensitivity (limit of detection = 4.8 nM Cd(2+), 2.0 nM Hg(2+), and 0.1 nM Pb(2+)). This study provides a new route to obtain metal-specific DNAzymes by atomic replacement and also offers important mechanistic insights into metal binding and DNAzyme catalysis.