Redox-regulated synthesis of fluorescent polydopamine nanoparticles for detection of butyrylcholinesterase activity

Butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) is an enzyme which is relevant to a variety of diseases, and often serve as a common biomarker of health. In this work, a novel fluorescence sensor based on redox-regulated synthesis of polydopamine nanoparticles (PDANPs) has been developed for simple and sensitive sensing BChE activity. A facile and rapid one-step approach for the preparation of fluorescent PDANPs uses potassium permanganate to oxidize dopamine. We demonstrated that the fluorescence intensity of PDANPs is dependent on the dose of potassium permanganate. Butyrylcholinesterase catalyzes the hydrolysis of butyrylthiocholine iodide (BTCh) to produce thiolcholine (TCh) which in a redox reaction with potassium permanganate prevents the formation of fluorescent PDANP. As a result, the activity of BChE can be determined in line with changes in the fluorescence of PDANPs. Based on this finding, a convenient and label-free fluorescence sensor for BChE activity was established via redox-control of the fluorescence intensity of PDANPs. A dynamic response range for BChE is acquired within 0.5 ∼ 200 U/L along with a detection limit of 0.047 U/L. Importantly, the proposed method achieves practical application toward BChE in human sera. Moreover, its satisfying performance for screening of inhibitors was also proved. Hence, the proposed sensor holds great potential for cholinesterase-related biomedical investigation.