Aggregation-Resistant, Turn-On-Off Fluorometric Sensing of Glutathione and Nickel (II) Using Vancomycin-Conjugated Gold Nanoparticles

Abstract

Glutathione (GSH) and nickel (II) cation have an indispensable role in various physiological processes, including preventing the oxidative damage of cells and acting as a cofactor for lipid metabolic enzymes. An imbalance in the physiological level of these species may cause serious health complications. Therefore, sensitive and selective fluorescent probes for the detection of GSH and nickel (II) are of great interest for clinical as well as environmental monitoring. Herein, vancomycin-conjugated gold nanoparticles (PEI-AuNP@Van) were prepared and employed for the detection of GSH and nickel (II) based on a turn-on-off mechanism. The as-synthesized PEI-AuNP@Van was ~7.5 nm in size; it exhibited a spherical shape with face-centered cubic lattice symmetry. As compared to vancomycin unconjugated gold nanoparticles, GSH led to the turn-on state of PEI-AuNP@Van, while Ni2+ acted as a fluorescence quencher (turn-off) without the aggregation of nanoparticles. These phenomena strongly justify the active role of vancomycin conjugation for the detection of GSH and Ni2+. The turn-on-off kinetics was linearly proportional over the concentration range between 0.05–0.8 µM and 0.05–6.4 μM. The detection limits were 205.9 and 90.5 nM for GSH and Ni2+, respectively; these results are excellent in comparison to previous reports. This study demonstrates the active role of vancomycin conjugation for sensing of GSH and Ni2+ along with PEI-AuNP@Van as a promising nanoprobe.