Analytical Sciences

Feasibility Study on Facile and One-step Colorimetric Determination of Glutathione by Exploiting Oxidase-like Activity of Fe₃O₄-MnO₂ Nanocomposites

Huiwen ZHANG,* Shuo YAO,* Chao ZHAO,* Wei ZHAO,** Juan LI,* and Juan WANG*

*School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China
**Jilin Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Changchun 130062, China

A facile and one-step colorimetric assay is described for the determination of glutathione (GSH). It is based on the use of manganese dioxide-decorated magnetic (Fe₃O₄@MnO₂) nanocomposite that was prepared by an in-situ redox reaction. It exhibits oxidase-mimicking activity and can catalyze the oxidation of 3,3′,5,5′-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) without H₂O₂to form a blue colored product (oxTMB) with an absorption maximum at 651 nm. Once GSH is introduced, the component of MnO₂ can be rapidly reduced to Mn²⁺ ions, which leads to inhibit the formation of oxTMB. Based on these findings, a one-step colorimetric assay was developed for the detection GSH in the range of 0.2 to 25 μM with a low detection limit of 0.2 μM without using any procedures of separation and washing. Importantly, the proposed approach is also used to accurately evaluate the intracellular GSH levels. In our perception, the assay is rapid, sensitive and specific.

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