Abstract
Catecholamine neurotransmitters, generally including dopamine (DA), epinephrine (EP) and norepinephrine (NE) are known as substantial indicators of various neurological diseases. Simultaneous detection of these compounds and their metabolites is highly recommended in early clinical diagnosis. To this aim, in the present contribution, a high performance colorimetric sensor array has been proposed for the detection and discrimination of catecholamines based on their reducing ability to deposit silver on the surface of gold nanorods (AuNRs). The amassed silver nanoshell led to a blue shift in the longitudinal localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak of AuNRs, creating a unique pattern for each of the neurotransmitters. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and linear discriminate analysis (LDA) pattern recognition techniques were employed to identify DA, EP and NE. The proposed colorimetric array is able to differentiate among individual neurotransmitters as well as their mixtures, successfully. Finally, it was shown that the sensor array can identify these neurotransmitters in human urine samples.
Highlights
Due to their low concentration, easy oxidation and similar structures, it is usually difficult to find reliable and sensitive methods for simultaneous detection of catecholamine neurotransmitters
We have reported the use of catecholamine neurotransmitters, as active reducing agents, for the formation of silver nanoshell on the surface of gold nanorods
In the presence of catecholamines as reducing mediators, silver coats the surface of nanorods and leads to a multicolor shift in the absorbance spectra, collected as respond profiles
Summary
Due to their low concentration, easy oxidation and similar structures, it is usually difficult to find reliable and sensitive methods for simultaneous detection of catecholamine neurotransmitters. Several analytical methods have been reported for the detection of neurotransmitters; for instance: electrochemical[12, 13], enzyme-based[14, 15], optical methods (e.g., fluorescent and colorimetric probes)[16,17,18], mass spectrometry[19] and chromatography (such as gas chromatography, liquid chromatography[20] and high performance liquid chromatography)[3, 21, 22]. Each of these strategies suffers from limitations such as inadequate selectivity, complicated instrumentation and time consuming sample preparations. The analytical performance of the developed array was further confirmed by testing complex mixtures and real urine samples
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