Bovine serum albumin-encapsulated gold nanoclusters-Cu2+ synergize and promote calcein chemiluminescence for glutathione detection in human whole blood

Albumin-based delivery systems: Recent advances, challenges, and opportunities

Albumin and albumin-based biomaterials have been explored for various applications, including therapeutic delivery, as therapeutic agents, as components of tissue adhesives, and in tissue engineering applications. Albumin has been approved as a nanoparticle containing paclitaxel (Abraxane®), as an albumin-binding peptide (Victoza®), and as a glutaraldehyde-crosslinked tissue adhesive (BioGlue®). Albumin is also approved as a supportive therapy for various conditions, including hypoalbuminemia, sepsis, and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, no other new albumin-based systems in a hydrogel format have been used in the clinic. A review of publicly available clinical trials indicates that no new albumin drug delivery formats are currently in the clinical development pipeline. Although albumin has shown promise as a carrier of therapeutics for various diseases, including diabetes, cancers, and infectious diseases, its potential for treating blood-borne diseases such as HIV and leukemia has not been translated. This review offers a perspective on the use of albumin-based drug delivery systems for a broader range of disease applications, considering the protein properties and a review of the currently approved albumin-based technologies. This review supports ongoing efforts to advance biomedical research and clinical interventions through albumin-based delivery systems.

Convenient in situ self-assembled formation of dual-functional Ag/MXene nanozymes for efficient chemiluminescence sensing

MXenes are attracting increasing interest as a low-cost carrier for the development of nanozymes with enhanced peroxidase or oxidase-like activity. In this work, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized and loaded on Ti3C2 MXene nanosheets (denoted as Ag/MXene) by a simple method, using MXene as a support and reducing agent. The synthesized Ag/MXene composites exhibited satisfactory stability and the peroxidase activity was higher than that of the single components. In the presence of luminol and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), Ag/MXene could catalyze H2O2 to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) and act on luminol to generate strong chemiluminescent (CL) signals. Free radical scavenging experiments and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy confirmed the production of these radicals. In this regard, we fabricated a facile biosensor for glutathione (GSH) and uric acid (UA) detection and the results showed good linear relationship between GSH and UA. The linear ranges of GSH and UA were 50 nM to 20 μM and 1 μM to 35 μM, respectively, with low detection limits of 0.83 nM and 0.37 μM. The sensor platform established in this study provides the possibility for developing MXene biosensors with high sensitivity and performance, and lays the solid foundation for expanding the application of MXene in biosensors.

Emission enhanced fluorometric biosensor by functionalized carbon polymer dots for glutathione detection in human real samples and molecular logic gate operation

Glutathione (GSH), an active peptide, plays pivotal roles in many physiological processes and detection of GSH inside of human body is of great importance for the playing of its biological effects. Here silver-phosphorus co-doped carbonized polymer dots (Ag@PCPDs) were prepared via solvothermal treatment of citric acid and phytic acid in the presence of Ag+ for GSH determination. The physicochemical and optical performance of the Ag@PCPDs were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), fluorescence spectroscopy and ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy analyses. The prepared Ag@PCPDs have outstanding water solubility with high monodispersity (7.81 ± 0.31 nm) and exhibited excellent optical properties with excitation-dependent emission, high photostability, pH, and ionic strength tolerance. An optimized excitation at 358 nm, the Ag@PCPDs showed strong photoluminescent (PL) emission at 456 nm with a PL quantum yield (QYs) of 15.6%. Furthermore, the Ag@PCPDs were used as a PL sensing platform for detection GSH in a linear range of 0-200 μM with a low limit of detection at 0.68 μM. In addition, the proposed system can construct molecular logic gates with GSH and Fe3+ ions as the chemical inputs and PL emissions as the output. And the Ag@PCPDs were successfully used for GSH determination in real samples resulting in high sensitivity and satisfactory recoveries (92.81--107.45%). More importantly, the Ag@PCPDs showed low cytotoxicity at 500 μg/mL and superior cell imaging capability in HeLa cells, which offer a new path for detection and categorization of GSH in biomedical applications.

Rapid binary visual detection of oxalate in urine samples of urolithiasis patients via competitive recognition and distance reading test strips

Urolithiasis is a common disease with wide ranging effects, with oxalate stones being the most prevalent type. Existing clinical diagnostic methods rely on complex instruments and professionals, are difficult to distinguish between stone types, and have insufficient sensitivity. Moreover, high-sensitivity point-of-care testing (POCT) methods remain scarce. We constructed a rapid homogeneous dual fluorescence and binary visualization analysis system to diagnose oxalate urolithiasis because oxalate can efficiently reduce Cu²⁺ to Cu⁺, which can be selectively competitively recognized by both calcein and cadmium telluride quantum dots (CdTe QDs). Under optimized conditions, the system exhibited high sensitivity to oxalate ranging from 10 pM to 10 nM within 3 min. Following that, visualized test strips of calcein and QDs were generated by inkjet printing; oxalate concentrations as low as 10 nM can be easily identified by reading the quenching distance on the strip. We then analyzed 66 clinical urine samples: 11 healthy, 10 oxalate-negative, and 45 oxalate-positive samples. The fluorescence and visual mode results were highly consistent with clinical computed tomography (CT) images and clinical diagnostics. Therefore, our analysis strategy has the potential to use POCT for the assessment of oxalate urolithiasis.

Detection of mercury(II) and glutathione using a carbon dots-based "off-on" fluorescent sensor and the construction of a logic gate

In this paper, we proposed an efficient method for mercury(II) and glutathione detection using a fluorescent nanoprobe as a sensor. Carbon dots were synthesized from polyethyleneimine and ammonium citrate via a one-step hydrothermal method. The fluorescence of carbon dots was quenched since electron transfer occurred due to the interaction between mercury(II) and functional groups on the surface of carbon dots. Adding glutathione to the carbon dots-mercury(II) system, the fluorescence was recovered due to the stronger binding ability of glutathione to mercury(II). Based on the above-mentioned principle, this "off-on" fluorescent sensor can easily achieve the detection of mercury(II) and glutathione, which provided limits of detection of 22.45 nM and 61.89 nM, respectively. In this paper, the proposed method has been applied to detect mercury(II) and glutathione in real lake water and serum, respectively, and a logic gate for sensing glutathione was presented. The developed "off-on" fluorescent sensor with high sensitivity and selectivity has shown great potential for mercury(II) and glutathione detection in environmental and biosensing fields.

A rod-like melem with high fluorescence quantum yield for sensitive detection of reduced glutathione

A rod-like melem with high fluorescence quantum yield of 71.3 % was prepared in this work to enhance the chemiluminescence (CL) intensity of Na₂SO₃-Ce (Ⅳ) system. The results showed that the CL intensity of Na₂SO₃-Ce (Ⅳ) system could be increased by 350 times based on chemiluminescence resonance energy transfer (CRET) mechanism. Furthermore, a CL sensor based on Na₂SO₃-Ce (Ⅳ)-melem system was designed to detect reduced glutathione (G-SH). It was indicated that the CL sensor exhibited excellent G-SH detection performance with a detection limit of 0.065 nM and a linear range from 0.32 to 650 μM. This study applied melem for CL detection and provided a new way for the detection of G-SH.

AuNPs-COFs Core-Shell Reversible SERS Nanosensor for Monitoring Intracellular Redox Dynamics

The redox homeostasis in living cells is greatly crucial for maintaining the redox biological function, whereas accurate and dynamic detection of intracellular redox states still remains challenging. Herein, a reversible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) nanosensor based on covalent organic frameworks (COFs) was prepared to dynamically monitor the redox processes in living cells. The nanosensor was fabricated by modifying the redox-responsive Raman reporter molecule, 2-Mercaptobenzoquione (2-MBQ), on the surface of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), followed by the in situ coating of COFs shell. 2-MBQ molecules can repeatedly and quickly undergo reduction and oxidation when successively treated with ascorbic acid (AA) and hypochlorite (ClO^-) (as models of reductive and oxidative species, respectively), which resulted in the reciprocating changes of SERS spectra at 900 cm^-1. The construction of the COFs shell provided the nanosensor with great stability and anti-interference capability, thus reliably visualizing the dynamics of intracellular redox species like AA and ClO^- by SERS nanosensor. Taken together, the proposed SERS strategy opens up the prospects to investigate the signal transduction pathways and pathological processes related with redox dynamics.

Simultaneous Detection and Analysis of Free Amino Acids and Glutathione in Different Shrimp

An amino acid analyzer method for the simultaneous determination of 20 free amino acids (FAAs) and glutathione (GSH) in Penaeus vannamei (PV), Penaeus vannamei, Penaeus hidulis (PH) and Penaeus japonicus (PJ) were developed. The effects of different concentrations of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) and ethanol on the extraction of free amino acids were investigated, and 120 g·L⁻¹ TCA was found to be ideal. The target analytes were eluted in sodium citrate buffer B1 (pH = 3.3) containing 135 mL·L⁻¹ ethanol and 1 mol·L⁻¹ sodium hydroxide (7 mL) and at the optimizing conversion time of sodium citrate buffer B2 (pH = 3.2) and sodium citrate buffer B3 (pH = 4.0) of 5.6 min, and the effective separation was achieved within 29.5 min. The developed method showed good linearity (R² ≥ 0.9991) in the range of 1–250 µg·mL⁻¹ with good intra-day and inter-day precision (relative standard deviations ≤ 2.38%) and spike recovery (86.42–103.64%). GSH and cysteine were used to identify marine prawn and freshwater shrimp. Hydroxyproline and serine were used to distinguish PV and Macrobrachium nipponense (MN) from others, respectively. The highest content of the total FAAs was found in PV, and principal component analysis revealed that PV had the highest comprehensive score for FAAs and GSH. Arginine was found to have the greatest influence on shrimp flavor.

Monitoring of glutathione using ratiometric fluorescent sensor based on MnO2 nanosheets simultaneously tuning the fluorescence of Rhodamine 6G and thiamine hydrochloride

L-glutathione (GSH) which has reducibility and integrated detoxification plays an important role in maintaining normal immune system function. Its abnormal levels are relevant to some clinical diseases. In this work, a facile ratiometric fluorescence sensor for GSH was designed based on MnO₂ nanosheets, Thiamine hydrochloride (VB₁) and Rhodamine 6G (R6G). VB₁ could be oxidized into fluorescent ox-VB₁ due to the strong oxidizing property of MnO₂, and MnO₂ nanosheets simultaneously could quench the fluorescence of R6G based on the inner filter effect (IFE). MnO₂ could react with GSH to form Mn²⁺, which caused its losing oxidizing property and quenching capacity. According to this principle, the concentration of ox-VB₁ diminished, resulting in its fluorescence intensity decreasing at 455 nm and the fluorescence of R6G recovering at 560 nm. Under optimal conditions, the VB₁-MnO₂-R6G detection system showed a wide linear range towards GSH in the range of 1.0-300.0 µmolL^-1 with a low detection limit reaching 0.52 µmolL^-1. Furthermore, the method was also applied in the determination of GSH in human serum.