Abstract:
The level of glutathione (GSH) in serum has been correlated with the occurrence of various diseases. In this paper, a fluorescence method that can measure GSH levels rapidly and sensitively was successfully established. In this method, manganese dioxide-coated silica nanoparticles (SiO2@MnO2) were synthesized simply and rapidly under ultrasonic conditions using silica nanoparticles as carriers and stabilizers, and fluorescent gold nanoclusters (Arg/ATT/AuNCs) with high fluorescence quantum yields were synthesized using arginine and thymine as ligands. The experimental results showed that the strong reduction of GSH could decompose MnO2 to release Mn(II) to burst the fluorescence of Arg/ATT/AuNCs, so a fluorescence method based on SiO2@MnO2 and Arg/ATT/AuNCs was established to measure GSH in serum. Under optimal conditions, the linear range of the method for quantitative measurement of GSH was from 2.5 to 20 nmol/L with a minimum detection limit of 1.23 nmol/L, which was better than similar methods that have been reported. The relative extended uncertainties of the method were 8.6%, 12.4%, and 18.8% (k = 2) for low, medium, and high GSH concentrations, respectively, with accuracies ranging from 87.0% to 105.6%, which meet the requirements of GSH determination and provide a new technique for sensitive and accurate measurement of GSH in serum.