title: Onsite naked eye determination of cysteine and homocysteine using quencher displacement-induced fluorescence recovery of the dual-emission hybrid probes with desired intensity ratio.
abstract: Simple, inexpensive, portable sensing strategies for those clinically relevant molecules have attained a significant positive impact on the health care system. Herein, we have prepared a dual-emission ratiometric fluorescence probe with desired intensity ratio and demonstrated its efficiency for onsite naked eye determination of cysteine (Cys) and homocysteine (Hcy). The hybrid probe has been designed by hybridizing two differently sized CdTe quantum dots (QDs), in which the red-emitting CdTe QDs (rQDs) entrapped in the silica sphere acting as the reference signal, and the green-emitting CdTe QDs (gQDs) covalently attached on the silica surface serving as the response signal. When 1,10-phenanthroline with strong coordination ability to Cd atoms in gQDs was introduced, the fluorescence of the gQDs was effectively quenched, while the fluorescence of the rQDs stayed constant. Upon exposure to different contents of Cys or Hcy, the fluorescence of gQDs can be recovered gradually due to the displacement of the quencher. Based on the background signal of rQDs, the variations of the sensing system display continuous fluorescence color changes from red to green, which can be easily observed by the naked eye. The assay requires ∼20min and has a detection limit of 2.5 and 1.7μM for Cys and Hcy, respectively. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this sensing scheme can be fully integrated in a filter paper-based assay, thus enabling a potential point-of-care application featuring easy operation, low power consumption, and low fabrication costs.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Modern Agriculture Equipment and Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, PR China.
authors.forename: Kan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Modern Agriculture Equipment and Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, PR China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Modern Agriculture Equipment and Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, PR China.
authors.forename: Ding
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Modern Agriculture Equipment and Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhengting
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Modern Agriculture Equipment and Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaojiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Modern Agriculture Equipment and Technology, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, PR China. Electronic address: wangkun@ujs.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods; D019187:Cadmium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D003545:Cysteine / Q000097:blood*; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D006710:Homocysteine / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D057230:Limit of Detection; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence / Q000379:methods; D013691:Tellurium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006710:Homocysteine; D003545:Cysteine; D013691:Tellurium; C028337:cadmium telluride
keywords: Cysteine; Dual-emission hybrid probes; Homocysteine; Naked eye determination; Ratiometric fluorescence