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Hydroxyapatite nanoparticle based fluorometric determination and imaging of cysteine and homocysteine in living cells

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Abstract

Fluorescent hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (HAP-NPs) were prepared by reacting calcium ion with phosphate in the presence of Eu(III) ion. The HAP-NPs display large Stokes’ shift and two strong fluorescence emissions with peaks at 590 nm and 615 nm when excited at 250 nm. The HAP-NPs also have good photostability and water solubility. The HAP-NPs combined with Cu(II) were applied to fluorometric determination of cysteine and homocysteine in biological samples and in living cells. In this detection scheme, the fluorescence of HAP-NPs is initially quenched by Cu(II). The addition of biothiols results in the formation of Cu(II)-thiol complexes and leads to fluorescence recovery. The assay allows cysteine to be detected with a 110 nM detection limit, and homocysteine with a 160 nM detection limit. The assay was successfully applied to the analysis of cysteine in spiked human serum samples and to imaging of cysteine in HeLa cells, and this demonstrates its potential for clinical testing and in biomedical research.

Fluorescent hydroxyapatite nanoparticles were synthesized and combined with Cu2+ for fluorescence sensing of biothiols (cysteine and homocysteine) in complex biological samples and in living cells.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the support of this work by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.21575165) and the support by Central South University (Grant No.2017gczd018).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Yuxin Li, Congcong Shen, Xiaoqing Li & Minghui Yang

  2. Department of stomatology, third Xiangya hospital, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Chunsheng Shao

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  1. Yuxin Li
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  2. Congcong Shen
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  3. Xiaoqing Li
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  4. Minghui Yang
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  5. Chunsheng Shao
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Correspondence to Minghui Yang or Chunsheng Shao.

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Li, Y., Shen, C., Li, X. et al. Hydroxyapatite nanoparticle based fluorometric determination and imaging of cysteine and homocysteine in living cells. Microchim Acta 185, 271 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-018-2801-y

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