DNA-templated copper nanocluster: A robust and universal fluorescence switch for bleomycin assay

作者：Li, Peng; Xie, Zhuohao; Zhuang, Liuyan; Deng, Liehua^*; Huang, Jiahao^*

来源：International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 2023, 234: 123756.

DOI：10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.123756

• DNA-templated copper nanocluster
• Fluorescence biosensor
• Pharmaceutical analysis

Bleomycin (BLM) is widely utilized for cancer treatment due to the outstanding antitumor activity, but BLM with imprecisely controlled dosage may lead to lethal consequences. It is thus a profound task to accurately monitor the BLM levels in clinical settings. Herein, we propose a straightforward, convenient, and sensitive sensing method for BLM assay. Poly-T DNA-templated copper nanoclusters (CuNCs) are fabricated with strong fluores-cence emission and uniform size distribution and served as fluorescence indicators for BLM. The high binding affinity of BLM for Cu2+makes it able to inhibit fluorescence signals generated from CuNCs. This is the under-lying mechanism rarely explored and can be utilized for effective BLM detection. A detection limit of 0.27 mu M (according to 3 sigma/s rule) is achieved in this work. And the precision, producibility, and practical useability are also confirmed with satisfactory results. Furthermore, the accuracy of the method is verified by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). To sum up, the established strategy in this work exhibits the ad-vantages of convenience, rapidness, low cost, and high precision. The construction of BLM biosensors is important to achieve the best therapeutic effect with minimal toxicity, which opens a new avenue for monitoring antitumor drugs in clinical settings.

• 单位
  南方医科大学; 广东医学院