Lei Zhongli, Zhou Jie, Liang Miao, Xiao Yan, Liu Zhihong
Hubei Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Organic Chemical Materials, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for the Synthesis and Application of Organic Functional Molecules & College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hubei University, Wuhan, China.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2021 Jan 15;8:628181. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2020.628181. eCollection 2020.
The development of sensitive and accurate detection of inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi) and pyrophosphatase activity (PPase) is important as they play vital roles in biological systems. However, it is still not satisfactory for most of the analytical methods for PPi and PPase because of their Cu-dependence and poor accuracy. Although the metal ion triggered aggregation-induced emission (AIE) of metal nanoclusters (NCs) offers a new approach to design a Cu-free strategy for the accurate determination of PPi and PPase recently, current methods are all focused on utilizing pure metal NCs. Alloy NCs incorporating the advantages of diverse metal usually can achieve improved behaviors in the application, such as enhanced sensitivity and stability. In this work, glutathione stabilized alloy Au/Ag NCs were synthesized via a simple method and used for the fluorescence detection of PPi and PPase based on a Zn-regulated AIE strategy. The controlled release of Zn by PPi and PPase could regulate the AIE of Au/Ag NCs and be employed to response PPi concentration and PPase activity. This method processes simple procedure, high sensitivity and stability, and low toxicity. In addition, we also studied the AIE behaviors of this Au/Ag NCs and offer some fundamental understanding of the AIE properties of water-soluble alloy NCs. This study not only provides a straightforward and new approach for PPi and PPase determination but a basis for further study on the AIE properties of alloy NCs and their application.
开发对无机焦磷酸（PPi）和焦磷酸酶活性（PPase）的灵敏且准确的检测方法很重要，因为它们在生物系统中发挥着至关重要的作用。然而，由于大多数用于检测PPi和PPase的分析方法依赖铜且准确性欠佳，所以仍不尽人意。尽管金属纳米团簇（NCs）的金属离子触发聚集诱导发光（AIE）最近为设计一种无铜策略来准确测定PPi和PPase提供了新方法，但目前的方法都集中在使用纯金属纳米团簇上。结合多种金属优势的合金纳米团簇通常在应用中能实现更好的性能，比如更高的灵敏度和稳定性。在这项工作中，通过一种简单方法合成了谷胱甘肽稳定的合金Au/Ag纳米团簇，并基于锌调控的AIE策略用于PPi和PPase的荧光检测。PPi和PPase对锌的可控释放能够调节Au/Ag纳米团簇的AIE，并用于响应PPi浓度和PPase活性。该方法操作步骤简单、灵敏度和稳定性高且毒性低。此外，我们还研究了这种Au/Ag纳米团簇的AIE行为，并对水溶性合金纳米团簇的AIE性质有了一些基本认识。本研究不仅为PPi和PPase的测定提供了一种直接的新方法，也为进一步研究合金纳米团簇的AIE性质及其应用奠定了基础。
