•A highly sensitive fluorescence DNA biosensing platform was developed.•Exo III-assisted target recycling and DNAzyme amplification strategy was used.•A low detection limit of 20 fM toward target DNA could be achieved.Because of the intrinsic importance of nucleic acid as bio-targets, the simple and sensitive detection of nucleic acid is very essential for biological studies and medical diagnostics. Herein, a simple, isothermal and highly sensitive fluorescence detection of target DNA was developed with the combination of exonuclease III (Exo III)-assisted cascade target recycling and DNAzyme amplification. A hairpin DNA probe was designed, which contained the 3′-protruding DNA fragment as target recognition unit, the caged DNA fragment in the stem region as target analogue, and the caged 8–17 DNAzyme sequence in the loop region as signal response unit. Upon sensing of target DNA, the 3′-strand of hairpin DNA probe could be stepwise removed by Exo III, accompanied by the releasing of target DNA and autonomous generation of new target analogues for the successive hybridization and cleavage process. Simultaneously, the 8–17 DNAzyme unit could be exponentially released from this hairpin DNA probe and activated for the cyclic cleavage toward the ribonucleotide-containing molecular beacon substrate, inducing a remarkable fluorescence signal amplification for target detection. A low detection limit of 20 fM with an excellent selectivity toward target DNA could be achieved. The developed cascade amplification strategy may be further extended for the detection of a wide spectrum of analytes including protein and biological small molecules by combining DNA aptamer technology.

•A novel and amplified fluorescence assay for T4 PNK activity was developed.•It combines split DNAzyme-based background reduction and ligation-triggered DNAzyme cascade signal amplification.•An impressive low detection limit of 0.001 U mL−1 for T4 PNK activity can be achieved.•The inhibition effects of various inhibitors toward T4 PNK activity were evaluated.In current study, a dual strategy for sensitive detection of T4 polynucleotide kinase (T4 PNK) activity was proposed, which combined split DNAzyme-based background reduction with ligation-triggered DNAzyme cascade for signal amplification. The 8–17 DNAzyme is split into two separate oligonucleotide fragments, which can be separately hybridized to the template DNA to form a ligatable nick after one of the fragments is phosphorylated at the 5at the yl by T4 PNK. With the further addition of Escherichia coli DNA ligase, the two oligonucleotides can be ligated to produce the activated 8–17 DNAzyme, the amount of which is positively related to the activity of T4 PNK. The signal amplification can be achieved through the cyclic cleavage of 8–17 DNAzyme toward the molecular beacon substrate, resulting in an evident fluorescence signal enhancement. The current dual strategy can significantly improve the detection sensitivity of the sensing systems, resulting in a detection limit of 0.001 U mL−1 for T4 PNK activity, which is superior or comparable to the reported methods. Furthermore, the inhibition effects of adenosine diphosphate and sodium hydrogen phosphate on T4 PNK activity have also been demonstrated with satisfactory results. The current method may be further developed as a universal protocol for monitoring activity and inhibition of nucleotide kinase, and may show the huge potentials in biological process researches, drug discovery, and clinic diagnostics.

•An enzyme-free and label-free ultrasensitive electrochemical DNA biosensing platform is developed.•Dendritic DNA concatamer is constructed via HCR strategy for signal amplification.•It shows a high sensitivity and selectivity toward target DNA and ATP detection.•It opens a promising direction for enzyme-free and ultrasensitive bioassays.Hybridization chain reaction (HCR) strategy has been well developed for the fabrication of various biosensing platforms for signal amplification. Herein, a novel enzyme-free and label-free ultrasensitive electrochemical DNA biosensing platform for the detection of target DNA and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) was firstly proposed, in which three auxiliary DNA probes were ingeniously designed to construct the dendritic DNA concatamer via HCR strategy and used as hexaammineruthenium(III) chloride (RuHex) carrier for signal amplification. With the developed dendritic DNA concatamer-based signal amplification strategy, the DNA biosensor could achieve an ultrasensitive electrochemical detection of DNA and ATP with a superior detection limit as low as 5 aM and 20 fM, respectively, and also demonstrate a high selectivity for DNA and ATP detection. The currently proposed dendritic DNA concatamer opens a promising direction to construct ultrasensitive DNA biosensing platform for biomolecular detection in bioanalysis and clinical biomedicine, which offers the distinct advantages of simplicity and cost efficiency owing to no need of any kind of enzyme, chemical modification or labeling.