A simple and dual functional dynamic light scattering (DLS) probe for rapid detection of mercury ions and biothiols

Mercury (Hg2+) is a toxic heavy metal and commonly exists in the ecological environment and polluted biological samples. Small-molecular-weight biological thiols (biothiols, such as GSH and Cys) play an essential role in many biological events. Till now, recently developed approaches for monitoring Hg2+ and biothiols commonly require large and cumbersome instruments, complicated procedures, or an elegant design and synthesis. In this study, we have developed a dynamic light scattering (DLS) based technique for the dual detection of Hg2+ and biothiols. This label free assay based on DNA-mediated gold nanoparticles (DNA-AuNPs) could present an effective toolkit for the determination of Hg2+ (or biothiol) containing samples within 30 min without complicated procedures. To best of our knowledge, this is the first DLS based probe for the dual detection of Hg2+ and biothiols. It exhibited potential for high throughput screening of Hg2+ (or biothiol) containing samples.