Issue 5, 2016

Selenium-containing organic nanoparticles as silent precursors for ultra-sensitive thiol-responsive transmembrane anion transport

Abstract

An anion transporter with a selenoxide group was able to form nanoparticles in water, whose activity was fully turned off due to the aggregation effect. The formed nanoparticles have a uniform size and can be readily dispersed in water at high concentrations. Turn-on of the nanoparticles by reducing molecules is proposed to be a combined process, including the reduction of selenoxide to selenide, disassembly of the nanoparticles and location of the transporter to the lipid membrane. Accordingly, a special acceleration phase can be observed in the turn-on kinetic curves. Since turn-on of the nanoparticles is quantitatively related to the amount of reductant, the nanoparticles can be activated in a step-by-step manner. Due to the sensibility of this system to thiols, cysteine can be detected at low nanomolar concentrations. This ultra-sensitive thiol-responsive transmembrane anion transport system is quite promising in biological applications.

Graphical abstract: Selenium-containing organic nanoparticles as silent precursors for ultra-sensitive thiol-responsive transmembrane anion transport

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
07 Nov 2015
Accepted
29 Dec 2015
First published
30 Dec 2015

Nanoscale, 2016,8, 2960-2966

Selenium-containing organic nanoparticles as silent precursors for ultra-sensitive thiol-responsive transmembrane anion transport

C. Lang, X. Zhang, Z. Dong, Q. Luo, S. Qiao, Z. Huang, X. Fan, J. Xu and J. Liu, Nanoscale, 2016, 8, 2960 DOI: 10.1039/C5NR07808C

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