State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China.
Small. 2014 Dec 29;10(24):5170-7. doi: 10.1002/smll.201401658. Epub 2014 Aug 11.
Glutathione (GSH) can significantly and selectively enhance the fluorescence intensity of Au nanoclusters (NCs) prepared by blending HAuCl4 and histidine in solution. The quantum yield of the Au NCs after adding GSH can reach above 10%. Besides, GSH capping shifts the excitation peak of Au NCs from ultraviolet (386 nm) to visible light (414 nm) and improves the stability of the Au NCs. The cytotoxicities of the Au NCs with and without GSH for normal lung cells (ATII) and cancerous lung cells (A549) are evaluated. The GSH-capped Au NCs have much less cytotoxicity to both normal and cancer cells, as compared to those without GSH. For Au NCs without GSH, less cytotoxicity is observed in cancer cells than in normal cells. In addtion, the Au NCs can selectively detect GSH over cysteine and homocysteine, the two biothiols which commonly exist in cells that can seriously affect GSH detection. Most importantly, Au NCs without GSH can selectively image the cancer cells, especially for the liver cancer cells whose GSH content is much higher than other cell types. This property makes the Au NCs a powerful probe to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells.
谷胱甘肽（GSH）可以显著且选择性地增强通过混合 HAuCl4 和组氨酸在溶液中制备的金纳米簇（NCs）的荧光强度。添加 GSH 后，Au NCs 的量子产率可达到 10%以上。此外，GSH 封端将 Au NCs 的激发峰从紫外光（386nm）转移到可见光（414nm），并提高了 Au NCs 的稳定性。评估了具有和不具有 GSH 的 Au NCs 对正常肺细胞（ATII）和癌细胞（A549）的细胞毒性。与不含 GSH 的 Au NCs 相比，具有 GSH 的 Au NCs 对正常和癌细胞的细胞毒性要小得多。对于不含 GSH 的 Au NCs，在癌细胞中观察到的细胞毒性比在正常细胞中要小。此外，Au NCs 可以选择性地检测 GSH 而不是半胱氨酸和同型半胱氨酸，这两种生物硫醇通常存在于细胞中，会严重影响 GSH 的检测。最重要的是，不含 GSH 的 Au NCs 可以选择性地对癌细胞进行成像，特别是对肝癌细胞，其 GSH 含量远高于其他细胞类型。这种特性使 Au NCs 成为区分癌细胞和正常细胞的有力探针。
