Construction of OVA-stabilized fluorescent gold nanoclusters for sensing glucose

Protein protected gold nanoclusters have outstanding physical and chemical properties that make them excellent scaffolds for the construction of novel chemical and biological probes. In this study, a simple one-pot synthesis method was proposed for the preparation of fluorescent probes based on ovalbumin-stabilized gold nanoclusters. This strategy allowed the generation of water-soluble gold nanoclusters within 5 min. The as-prepared fluorescent probe exhibited a red fluorescence emission at 625 nm, and good thermostability. The fluorescent probe was applied to measure glucose concentrations based on the hydrogen peroxide-induced fluorescence quenching principle, and showed favorable biocompatibility, high sensitivity and good selectivity. As a result of the advantageous properties and performance of this fluorescent probe, the present assay allowed for the selective determination of glucose in the range of 5.0×10 −6 to 10.0×10 −3 mol/L with a detection limit of 1.0×10 −6 mol/L. Moreover, the glucose content in urinary samples was analyzed using the constructed fluorescent probe: this indicated the potential of the fluorescent gold nanoclusters for applications in biological and clinical diagnosis and therapy.