A turn-on phosphorescence aptasensor for ultrasensitive detection of lysozyme in humoral samples

•An ultrasensitive phosphorescence turn-on sensing system was fabricated to selectively detect lysozyme in humoral samples..•This is first attempt to detect lysozyme combining aptamer and room temperature phosphorescence technique.•In this sensing platform, Mn-doped ZnS quantum dots was used as the phosphorescence reporter and lysozyme-aptamer as the recognition unit.•The tedious deoxidization and organization media protection for the phosphorescence measurement is avoided.