Bibliographic Details
| Title: |
A pH-Responsive Liquid Crystal-Based Sensing Platform for the Detection of Biothiols. |
| Authors: |
Meng, Xianghao, Zhang, Ronghua, Dong, Xinfeng, Wang, Zhongxing, Yu, Li |
| Source: |
Chemosensors; Aug2025, Vol. 13 Issue 8, p291, 14p |
| Subject Terms: |
Cysteine, Glutathione, Biosensors, Liquid crystals, Smart materials, Optical signal detection, Thiols, Urease |
| Abstract: |
Biothiols, including cysteine (Cys), homocysteine (Hcy), and glutathione (GSH), are crucial for physiological regulation and their imbalance poses severe health risks. Herein, we developed a pH-responsive liquid crystal (LC)-based sensing platform for detection of biothiols by doping 4-n-pentylbiphenyl-4-carboxylic acid (PBA) into 4-n-pentyl-4-cyanobiphenyl (5CB). Urease catalyzed urea hydrolysis to produce OH−, triggering the deprotonation of PBA, thereby inducing a vertical alignment of LC molecules at the interface corresponding to dark optical appearances. Heavy metal ions (e.g., Hg2+) could inhibit urease activity, under which condition LC presents bright optical images and LC molecules maintain a state of tilted arrangement. However, biothiols competitively bind to Hg2+, the activity of urease is maintained which enables the occurrence of urea hydrolysis. This case triggers LC molecules to align in a vertical orientation, resulting in bright optical images. This pH-driven reorientation of LCs provides a visual readout (bright-to-dark transition) correlated with biothiol concentration. The detection limits of Cys/Hcy and GSH for the PBA-doped LC platform are 0.1 μM and 0.5 μM, respectively. Overall, this study provides a simple, label-free and low-cost strategy that has a broad application prospect for the detection of biothiols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: |
Complementary Index |