A rainbow ratiometric fluorescent sensor array on bacterial nanocellulose for visual discrimination of biothiols

Abstract

Considering the crucial role of biothiols in many biological processes, which turns them into highly valuable biomarkers for the early diagnosis of various diseases, the development of an affordable, sensitive and portable probe for the identification and discrimination of these compounds is of great importance. Herein, we developed a ratiometric fluorescent (RF) sensor array with a wide color emissive variation, on a bacterial cellulose (BC) nanopaper substrate for the visual discrimination of biothiols. To this aim, RF sensing elements including N-acetyl l-cysteine capped green CdTe quantum dots-rhodamine B (GQDs-RhB) and red CdTe QDs-carbon dots (RQDs-CDs) at two different NaOH concentrations (0 and 5 mM) were utilized as sensor elements for the discrimination of biothiols. Owing to the high affinity of the thiol group (SH) to the surface of CdTe QDs and the aggregation of the QDs, the fluorescence (FL) emission of the QDs changed while the emission of the CDs and rhodamine B remained almost unchanged upon the addition of biothiols. Accordingly, characteristic rainbow-like FL fingerprint patterns were created for each biothiol which were then distinguished both visually and spectroscopically. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) pattern recognition techniques were employed for the identification and discrimination of biothiols. Based on the designed RF sensor array, convenient test strips were fabricated on BC nanopaper for the visual discrimination of biothiols. It has been shown that this probe can successfully identify biothiols in human plasma as well. Altogether, the developed nanopaper-based sensor array offers an efficient biothiol discrimination tool that can be potentially exploited in the near future in theranostic and point-of-care applications.

Applications of Nanocellulose/Nanocarbon Composites: Focus on Biotechnology and Medicine

“…humidity, human breath [104] Carbon black: Strain, human motion [31,33] Optical: oxygen and temperature [115]; oxygen [116] Optical: SERS: bilirubin [100]; Fluorescence: laccase [71] Carbon quantum dots: optical sensor for biothiols [26] Acoustic: ammonia [101] Isolation of biomolecules Histidine-rich proteins, hemoglobin [77]; bovine serum albumin [79] Electrical stimulation of tissues Cardiac tissue [52]; neural tissue [106] Tissue engineering (TE)…”

“…An optical sensor for visual discrimination of biothiols was based on a bacterial cellulose nanopaper substrate with ratiometric fluorescent sensing elements. These elements included N-acetyl l-cysteine capped green cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots-rhodamine B and red CdTe quantum dots-carbon dots [26]. Hybrid materials containing carbon quantum dots and cellulose are also promising carriers for drug delivery.…”

“…Integration of nanocarbon materials with nanocellulose provides functionality of nanocarbons, using an eco-friendly, low-cost, strong, dimension-stable, nonmelting, nontoxic and nonmetal matrix or carrier, which alone has versatile applications in industry, biotechnology and biomedicine (for a review, see [1,2]). In addition to its advantageous combination with nanocarbon materials, nanocellulose is an appealing material for biomedical applications due to its tunable chemical fluorescence and luminescence [26,71,72] photothermal activity [56], hydrolytic stability [61], nanoporous character and high adsorption capacity [49,61]. Nanocellulose/nanocarbon composites can therefore be used in a wide range of industrial and technological applications, such as water purification [22,29,43,49,54,56,61,[73][74][75][76], the isolation and separation of various molecules [22,74,[77][78][79], energy generation, storage and conversion [21,23,44,47,64,[80][81][82][83][84][85], biocatalysis [86], food packaging [67][68][69]87], construction of fire retardants …”

Ultrasensitive Physical, Bio, and Chemical Sensors Derived from 1‐, 2‐, and 3‐D Nanocellulosic Materials

“…Limited control of nanostructures, inconvenient handling Pressure/strain sensor, [19k] proximity sensor [19f ] Glucose sensor, [26g,l] human neutrophil elastase (HNE) sensor, [16b,33,34] cholesterol sensor [35,36] Ion-selective sensor, [19c,31,32] organic dye sensor [15] 2D Microporous structure, lightweight, flexibility, thermal/ mechanical robustness, chemical stability, high availability, transparency, printability, in a solid form Low absorbing capacity, limited porosity, brittleness, poor ductility and tear strength, low mechanical strength in aqueous media Pressure/strain sensor, [19j,29,68-70] temperature sensor, [29,78] humidity sensor [12,26k,n,71-74] Human neutrophil elastase (HNE) sensor, [64] purines (guanine and adenine) sensor, [65] human serum albumin (HSA) sensor, [66] biothiol sensor [67] Ion-selective sensor, [19h,56,63] gas sensor, [1,19g,26m,75-77] drug sensor, [11,19e,79,80] toxic compound sensor [19e,81,82]…”

Nanocellulose in Biotechnology and Medicine: Focus on Skin Tissue Engineering and Wound Healing

“…Nanocellulose/polypyrrole [111] Nanocellulose/polyethylene [112] Graphene/nanocellulose/silicon [113] Solar cells/panels Nanofibers from sisal with graphene oxide [73] (Super)capacitors Bacterial nanocellulose/carbon nanotubes/triblock-copolymer ion gels [114] Nanocellulose with polyaniline [115] Acoustics Membranes for loudspeakers Cellulose nanofibers with Fe3O4 nanoparticles [71] (Bio)sensors Optical SERSbased Detection of pesticides, dyes, bacteria [116,117] Optical fluorescencebased Detection of heavy metals [118] Detection of thiols [119] Detection of elastase [120] Chemical Detection of vapors (NH3.H2O, H2O, HCl, acetic acid) [16] Electrochemical Detection of cations in biological fluids (Na + , K + , Ca 2+ ) [38] Detection of cholesterol [121] Detection of avian leukosis virus [122] Piezoelectric Based on bacterial cellulose [123] Based on plant-derived cellulose nanofibrils [124] Based on nanocellulose with chitosan [125] Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 14 December 2018 Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 14 December 2018 doi:10.20944/preprints201812.0170.v1…”