Dual protein ligand-modified gold nanoclusters for selective detection of serum sodium copper chlorophyllin.

Abstract

Precisely tuning the emission wavelength of dual ligands co-functionalized gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) presents a bright prospect for highly selective drug detection. In this study, gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) with strong red fluorescence at 633 nm were synthesized using bovine serum albumin (BSA) and bromelain (Bro) as dual ligands for highly selective detection of sodium copper chlorophyllin (SCC). Interestingly, the auto-fluorescence interference of the dual ligands was effectively avoided due to the fluorescence emission red-shifts of the prepared BSA/Bro@AuNCs; this may be mainly due to the rigid structure of the proteins. The fluorescence of BSA/Bro@AuNCs was quenched after addition of SCC, which performed well and provided a good linear calibration curve in the 5.0-25.0 μM range (R2 = 0.999), and a detection limit as low as 0.5 μM. The proposed assay was further applied to the measurement of SCC in rat serums after an intravenous injection. The dual protein ligand-capped AuNCs showed great potential for drug analysis in actual biological samples.