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Colorimetric detection of L-histidine based on the target-triggered self-cleavage of swing-structured DNA duplex-induced aggregation of gold nanoparticles

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A rapid, highly sensitive and selective colorimetric assay is presented for visually detecting L-histidine. It is based on L-histidine-triggered self-cleavage of DNA duplex-induced gold nanoparticle (AuNP) aggregation. The citrate-capped AuNPs easily aggregate in a high concentration of salt environment. However, in the presence of L-histidine aptamers (DNA1 and DNA2), the partial strands of DNA1 and DNA2 hybridize to form a DNA duplex with a swing structure. The swing-like DNA duplexes are adsorbed on the surface of AuNPs to improve the stability of AuNPs, and the AuNPs also are better dispersed in high-salt media. When L-histidine is added to the solutions, it catalyzes the self-cleavage of DNA1 to form many single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) fragments. These ssDNA segments are adsorbed on the AuNPs and weaken the stability of AuNPs. Hence, the AuNPs aggregate in high-salt environment, and this results in a red-to-blue color change. Under the optimized conditions, L-histidine can be determined with a limit of detection of 3.6 nM. In addition, the sensor was successfully applied to the determination of L-histidine in spiked serum samples. Graphical abstractSchematic of a rapid and homogeneous colorimetric L-histidine assay. It combines L-histidine-triggered self-cleavage of the swing-like DNA duplexes and self-cleavage of DNA-induced AuNP aggregation.
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Colorimetric detection of L-histidine based on the target-triggered
self-cleavage of swing-structured DNA duplex-induced aggregation
of gold nanoparticles
Yunfei Jiao
1
&Qingyun Liu
2
&Hong Qiang
1
&Zhengbo Chen
1
Received: 8 August 2018 / Accepted: 29 August 2018 / Published online: 12 September 2018
#Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2018
Abstract
A rapid, highly sensitive and selective colorimetric assay is presented forvisuallydetecting L-histidine. It is based onL-histidine-
triggered self-cleavage of DNA duplex-induced gold nanoparticle (AuNP) aggregation. The citrate-capped AuNPs easily aggre-
gate in a high concentration of salt environment. However, in the presence of L-histidine aptamers (DNA1 and DNA2), the partial
strands of DNA1 and DNA2 hybridize to form a DNAduplex with a swing structure. The swing-like DNA duplexes are adsorbed
on the surface of AuNPs to improve the stability of AuNPs, and the AuNPs also are better dispersed in high-salt media. WhenL-
histidine is added to the solutions, it catalyzes the self-cleavage of DNA1 to form many single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) frag-
ments. These ssDNA segments are adsorbed on the AuNPs and weaken the stability of AuNPs. Hence, the AuNPs aggregate in
high-salt environment, and this results in a red-to-blue color change. Under the optimized conditions, L-histidine can be
determined with a limit of detection of 3.6 nM. In addition, the sensor was successfully applied to the determination of L-
histidine in spiked serum samples.
Keywords Self-cleavage of DNA .Colorimetric assay .L-Histidine detection .Gold nanoparticle aggregation .Swing-like
duplex .Ratiometric assay .Visible color change .Serum samples .Catalysis
Introduction
L-Histidine (L-His), an essential amino acid in human and
mammal species, plays an essential role in the mammalian
central nervous system, the repair and growth of tissue, min-
imizing internal bleeding from microtrauma, and controlling
the transport of metals in biologically important bases [1,2].
An abnormal L-histidine level is an index of some diseases
including acute liver failure, rheumatoid arthritis, AIDS,
chronic kidney disorder, Alzheimers disease, and cancer
[38]. Therefore, the determination of L-histidine is extremely
important in biological fluids.
There are a number of methods for the detection of L-his-
tidine, such as including high performance liquid chromatog-
raphy (HPLC) [9], electrophoresis [10,11], mass spectrome-
try [12], fluorescence [13], and electrochemistry [14,15].
These approaches, while most successful, most of them show
poor selectivity, require time-consuming pre-treatment or so-
phisticated detection systems such as the use of organic sol-
vents. To circumvent these disadvantages, colorimetric
methods as a promising analytical technology, have been ex-
tensively used due to their simplicity, low cost, rapid/direct
readout with the bare eye, and no need to use expensive ana-
lytical instruments [1624]. Therefore, it is still necessary and
important todevelop a low-cost, highly sensitive and selective
colorimetric method for scaling L-histidine.
Previous reports have demonstrated that single-stranded
DNA (ssDNA) can be absorbed on gold nanoparticle
A colorimetric assay for detecting L-histidine based on target L-histidine-
triggered self-cleavage of DNA duplex-induced AuNP aggregation.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article
(https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-018-2987-z) contains supplementary
material, which is available to authorized users.
*Hong Qiang
13691076492@163.com
*Zhengbo Chen
czb979216@sina.com
1
Department of Chemistry, Capital Normal University,
Beijing 100048, China
2
College of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Shandong
University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, China
Microchimica Acta (2018) 185: 452
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-018-2987-z
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Numerous methods are known for the determination of His. They are based on various approaches, such as liquid chromatography [5,6], capillary electrophoresis [7,8], electrochemistry [9,10], surface-enhanced Raman scattering [11], chemiluminescence [12], colorimetry [13][14][15], fluorimetry [4,[16][17][18][19][20][21], and molecularly imprinted photonic hydrogels [22]. Among of them, fluorimetry can provide striking merits including relatively easy to operate, high sensitivity, wide linear range, low detection limit, and ability to real-time monitoring, etc., which render it superior compared to many of other conventional methods and evolves to be one of the most effective analyzing technologies [3,4]. ...
... Duing to the distinctive optical properties of innorganic nanoparticles (NPs), metal NPs such as Ag NPs [3] and Au NPs [14], metal oxide including ZnO [25,26] and carbon dots (C-dots) [19][20][21], etc. have been used as probes for bioanalytes sensing. However, the applications of noble metal NPs are limited by cost, precursor scarcity, and poor stability [27]. ...
... C [His] + 20.2301 (R 2 = 0.9924). The limit of detection (LOD) for His detecting is calculated to be 14.3 nM at a signal-to-noise ratio of 3. Besides, we compare the linear concentration range and LOD value for His of this system with other relevant previous work, including electrochemistry [9,10], colorimetry [13,14], MIPH-based optical sensor [22] and fluorimetry [3,[17][18][19][20][30][31][32]. The corresponding results are displayed in Table 1. ...
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... Interestingly, Jiao et al. investigated the opposite behavior of DNA-based detection platform while assessing L-histidine. [314] In this assay without histidine, DNA1 and DNA2 as histidine aptamers were partially hybridized to form a swing-like unique structure which helped the DNA duplex absorption on AuNPs and make them dispersed. L-histidine was determined with a LOD of 3.6 nM when sessile phosphodiester of the DNA1 was cleaved into two parts via self-cleavage due to catalytic action of histidine which disturbed the swing structure of duplex and created ssDNA segments. ...
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... Literature review brings many analytical procedures for His determination in pure form or in pharmaceutical formulations, as well as in biological samples: colorimetry (Newman and Turnbull, 1960, Jiao et al., 2018, Razavi and Khajehsharifi, 2021, spectrophotometry (Patel Vandana et al., 2009), spectrofluorimetry (Ambrose et al., 1969, Gerber, 1970, Alevridis et al., 2020, chemiluminescence (Zhu et al., 2002, Kiba et al., 2006, Hun, 20159, voltammetry (Jaselskis, 1958, Moreira and Fogg, 1991, Farias et al., 2008, microbiology (Horn et al., 1948), kinetic spectrophotometry (Mitić et al., 2004), potentiometry (Staden andHolo, 2007, Abbaspour et al., 2004) and cation-exchange chromatography (Stampina, 2021). ...
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... It's over expression could cause variety of diseases including histidinemia, advanced liver cirrhosis and asthma [13]. Many analytical techniques have been employed for L-histidine assay in biological fluids such as capillary electrophoresis [14], voltammetry [15], liquid chromatography [16], colorimetry [17] and fluorimetry [18]. Among these methods, fluorimetric detection is reported to be most favourable one in the detection of histidine due to their sensitivity, stability and reliability [19]. ...
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