Elsevier

Analytical Biochemistry

Volume 331, Issue 2, 15 August 2004, Pages 235-242
Analytical Biochemistry

Species-differentiable sensing of phosphate-containing anions in neutral aqueous solution based on coordinatively unsaturated lanthanide complex probes

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ab.2004.05.024Get rights and content

Abstract

A new chromogenic/fluorogenic molecular probe was developed for highly selective and species-differentiable detection of phosphate-containing anions in neutral aqueous solution. The coordinatively unsaturated lanthanide complex, made from Eu(III) ion and 2-[(8-hydroxy-5-sulfo-7-quinoline)azo]-1,8-dihydroxy-3,6-naphthalene disulfonic acid, changed its conformation when binding to the incoming target anions, which resulted in differential absorption or fluorescence responses. It was demonstrated that not only phosphate and pyrophosphate but also DNA and RNA could be clearly distinguished by visible absorption or fluorescence spectra. Also, differential responses in absorption spectra were observed when AMP, ADP, and ATP were added into the sensing system. Selective quantitation of these phosphate-containing anions in aqueous solutions, therefore, can be easily available. DNA and RNA were distinguished by different colors and independent fluorescence emissions due to their intrinsic differences in β-d-ribose residues. Simultaneous or independent quantitation of DNA and RNA in a mixture sample, therefore, is possible without pretreatment with nuclease. Furthermore, the influence from the base selectivity can be eliminated by the use of the probe. The detection limits of phosphate and 5-ATP in neutral water were 6.0 × 10−7 and 9.0 × 10−7 M, respectively, by the UV/Vis spectrophotometric method; the detection limits were 12.3 ng/mL for DNA by fluorimetry and 2.3 mg/L for RNA by UV/Vis spectrophotometry.

Section snippets

Reagents

HQSAC was prepared as described elsewhere [15]. 5-AMP, 5-ADP, and 5-ATP were purchased from Sangon Biotech. (Shanghai, China); herring sperm DNA, calf thymus DNA, and yeast RNA were purchased from Sino-American Biotech.; buffer reagents, Tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane, and 3,3-dimethylglutaric acid were purchased from Acros Organics and used without any further purification. All other reagents were of analytical grade or better and used without further purification.

The lanthanide complex

Results and discussion

The UV/Vis spectral responses of 1a toward many anions were tested; the results are shown in (Fig. 2). When a series of buffered (0.020 M Tris–HCl, pH 7.40 at 23 °C) 1a aqueous solutions with the same concentration were titrated by different anion solutions, it was observed that the color shifted from pink to blue and royal for HPO42− and P2O74−, respectively, while other anions including F, Cl, Br, I, SCN, NO3, SO32−, SO42−, HCO3, NO2, and HPO2 induced no color changes. This phenomenon

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20275033). We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Yuan Yan for presenting the synthesized reagents HQSAC and HQSAH.

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