肝癌是全球最常见的癌症之一，严重威胁人类的生命和健康。胎儿蛋白α（AFP）作为一种致癌糖蛋白，是检测肝癌的重要血清标志物。因此，准确和敏感地测定AFP对于早期诊断和治疗肝癌至关重要。为此，基于一种具有聚集诱导发光活性的新型有机化合物D和修饰了适配体的磁性微粒的无标记荧光受体结构已建立用于检测AFP的方法。化合物D可以与AFP的互补短链（CSC-Apt）结合形成D/CSC-Apt复合物，并实现化合物D的荧光增强。然后，制备了修饰AFP适配体（Apt-Fe3O4）的磁性粒子。当将AFP（或非靶物质）和D/CSC-Apt依次加入到Apt-Fe3O4溶液中时，Apt-Fe3O4选择性地结合AFP或D/CSC-Apt复合物。磁分离技术显示了上清液的荧光强度变化。研究结果表明，在10-10000 pg mL-1范围内，上清液的荧光强度变化与AFP浓度呈良好的线性关系。所提出的适配体传感器能够实现对AFP的高灵敏度和高特异性检测，其检测限为3 pg mL-1（S/N = 3）。该传感器结合了适配体的高选择性、荧光分析的高灵敏度、化合物D的聚集诱导发光效应和良好的水溶性以及磁分离技术的快速分离等优点。它可以直接用于实际血清样品中AFP的检测，而文献中大多数方法只能检测加入的血清样品中的AFP。版权所有©2023 Elsevier B.V.发表。

Liver cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world, and it seriously threatens human life and health. Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), as a carcinogenic glycoprotein, is an important serum marker for detecting liver cancer. Therefore, the accurate and sensitive determination of AFP is crucial for the early diagnosis and treatment of liver cancer. To this end, a label-free fluorescence aptasensor for detecting AFP based on the use of a novel organic Compound D with an aggregation-induced emission activity and aptamer-modified magnetic microparticles was constructed.Compound D could combine with the complementary short chain of the aptamer (CSC-Apt) of AFP to form the D/CSC-Apt complex and realize the fluorescence enhancement of Compound D. Then, magnetic particles modified by the Apt of AFP (Apt-Fe3O4) were prepared. When AFP (or nontarget substance) and D/CSC-Apt were successively added to the Apt-Fe3O4 solution, Apt-Fe3O4 selectively bound to AFP or the D/CSC-Apt complex. Magnetic separation technology showed the changes in the fluorescence intensity of the supernatant. The research results revealed a good linear relationship between the changes in the fluorescence intensity of the supernatant and concentration of AFP within the concentration range of 10-10000 pg mL-1. The proposed aptasensor could achieve high-sensitivity and high-specificity detection of AFP, and its limit of detection was 3 pg mL-1 (S/N = 3).The sensor combines the advantages of high selectivity of Apt, high sensitivity of fluorescence analysis, AIE effect and good water solubility of Compound D, and rapid separation using magnetic separation technology. And it can be directly used for the detection of AFP in actual serum samples with high accuracy, whereas most of the methods reported in the literature can only detect AFP in spiked serum samples.Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.