A Novel Detection Method of Human Serum Albumin Based on the Poly(Thymine)-Templated Copper Nanoparticles

• Main Authors: Mingjian Chen, Xinying Xiang, Kefeng Wu, Hailun He, Hanchun Chen, Changbei Ma
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-11-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: label-free; human serum albumin; copper nanoparticles
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/17/11/2684

In this work, we developed a facile fluorescence method for quantitative detection of human serum albumin (HSA) based on the inhibition of poly(thymine) (poly T)-templated copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) in the presence of HSA. Under normal circumstances, poly T-templated CuNPs can display strong fluorescence with excitation/emission peaks at 340/610 nm. However, in the presence of HSA, it will absorb cupric ion, which will prevent the formation of CuNPs. As a result, the fluorescence intensity will become obviously lower in the presence of HSA. The analyte HSA concentration had a proportional linear relationship with the fluorescence intensity of CuNPs. The detection limit for HSA was 8.2 × 10−8 mol·L−1. Furthermore, it was also successfully employed to determine HSA in biological samples. Thus, this method has potential applications in point-of-care medical diagnosis and biomedical research.