Uranalysis-tailored fluorogenic strategy for monitoring bladder cancer biomarker hyaluronidase-1 by harnessing hydrogen-bonding-induced emission.

Non-invasive monitoring of urinary biomarkers by luminescent strategy plays a critical role in enabling precise theranostics for early-stage cancer. However, the development of highly specific and sensitive molecular tools for uranalysis remains challenging. Leveraging aqueous-rich characteristic of urine, a uranalysis-tailored fluorogenic strategy was proposed by regulating hydrogen-bonding induced emission herein. We rationally constructed a self-assembly hyaluronic acid-based nanosensor that can be specifically dissociated by hyaluronidase-1, a potentially prognostic biomarker of bladder cancer, to release the entrapped chalcone fluorophores with anti-solvatochromic effect into hydrophilic environments, inducing bright emission through the formation of a hydrogen-bond assembly. The designed nanosensor was successfully used to distinguish healthy individuals and bladder cancer patients based on their differential Hyal-1 levels. Moreover, this approach would be generalized to develop a toolbox for urinary tests of more diseases-associated biomarkers of interest.