Dual-responsive persistent luminescence nanoflowers for glutathione detection and imaging

Abstract

Glutathione (GSH) is one of the important substances to maintain the redox balance in vivo, accurate monitoring of its changes is conducive to the early diagnosis and treatment of related diseases. Herein, we reported a two-in-one nanoflower-structured sensing platform (ZCGO@MnO2) with luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET) property and oxidase-like activity for dual-mode detection of GSH. The sensor consisted of persistent luminescence nanoparticles (PLNPs) with near-infrared emission and manganese dioxide (MnO2) with luminescence quenching ability and oxidase-like activity. The addition of GSH could reduce MnO2 to Mn2+, resulting in the recovery of persistent luminescence and inhibition of oxidase-like activity, then achieving persistent luminescence and colorimetric dual-mode signal outputs. The sensor utilized the persistent luminescence of PLNPs to eliminate the background interference of the complex biological matrix, improved the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of detection and took advantage of dual-mode sensing to improve the accuracy of detection, showing excellent analytical performance. Besides, the sensor was capable of monitoring changes in intracellular GSH levels through bioimaging. This work provides new ideas for the design of sensors in complex samples and broadens the application of PLNPs in the field of biosensing.