Tryptophan-contained peptide-functional nanomaterials as general spectrofluorometric reagents for enzyme

By designing and coupling a functional peptide, Gly-Leu-Ala-Cys-Ser-Gly-Phe-Pro-Arg-Gly-Arg-Trp, which could be cleaved by thrombin at the site of Arg-Gly (R-G), to the surface of gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs), we propose a simple spectrofluorometry for thrombin (TRB) in this contribution. Experiments showed that the peptide coupled to the surface of Au-NPs in a Tris-HCl buffer at 37 degrees C could be cleaved, leaving the fluorescent fragment of Gly-Arg-Trp in the Au-NPs suspension. By centrifuging the suspension and measuring the fluorescence signals resulting from the Trp structure of Gly-Arg-Trp fragment in the supernatant, we found that the fluorescence intensity is proportional to thrombin concentrations in the range of 1-100 nM with the limit of the detection of 0.1 nM. Since there are a lot of enzymes that can hydrolyze peptide with special sequence, and novel nanomaterials that can bind with the tryptophan-contained peptide and understand centrifugation, this spectrofluorometric method is general and it is possible to develop a variety of detection method for target enzymes. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.