Fluorescent sensing of homocysteine in urine: Using fluorosurfactant-capped gold nanoparticles and o-Phthaldialdehyde

This study reports the development of a simple, sensitive, and selective-detection system for homocysteine (HCys) based on the combination of fluorosurfactant-capped gold nanoparticles (FSN-AuNPs) and o-Phthaldialdehyde (OPA). The proposed assay utilizes FSN-AuNPs as extractors for HCys and cysteine (Cys), which can then be collected by centrifugation. As long as the HCys and Cys are isolated from the initial sample, they can be liberated from the NP surface by 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME). The derivatization of released HCys with OPA/2-ME has a strong fluorescence maximum at 485 nm, whereas the derivatization of released Cys with the same reagent shows an extremely weak fluorescence maximum at 457 nm. As a result, the selectivity of this system is more than 100-fold for HCys over any aminothiols when excited at 370 nm. The extraction and derivation efficiencies are monitored as functions of the concentration of FSN-AuNPs and OPA, respectively. The proposed system has a detection limit of 180 nM at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3 for HCys. This study validates the applicability of this system by analyzing the amount of HCys in urine samples.