Semiconducting Polymer Nanoparticles-Manganese Based Chemiluminescent Platform for Determining Total Antioxidant Capacity in Diabetic Mice

The total antioxidant capacity (TAC) is a key indicator of the body's resistance to oxidative stress injury in diabetic patients. The measurement of TAC is important for effectively evaluating the redox state to prevent and control the occurrence of diabetes complications. However, there is a lack of a simple, convenient, and reliable method to detect the total antioxidant capacity in diabetes. Herein, we design a novel chemiluminescent platform based on semiconducting polymer nanoparticles-manganese (SPNs-Mn^VII) to detect the total antioxidant capacity of urine in diabetic mice. We synthesize semiconducting polymer nanoparticles with four different structures and discover the ability of Mn^VII to produce singlet oxygen (¹O₂) that is employed to excite thiophene-based SPNs (PFODBT) to emit near-infrared chemiluminescence. Notably, the chemiluminescent intensity has a good linear relationship with the concentration of Mn^VII (detection limit: 2.8 μM). Because antioxidants (e.g., glutathione or ascorbic acid) can react with Mn^VII, such a chemiluminescent tool of SPNs (PFODBT)-Mn^VII can detect the glutathione or ascorbic acid with a larger responsive range. Furthermore, the total antioxidant capacity of urine from mice is evaluated via SPNs (PFODBT)-Mn^VII, and there are statistically significant differences between diabetic and healthy mice. Thus, this new chemiluminescent platform of SPNs (PFODBT)-Mn^VII is convenient, efficient, and sensitive, which is promising for monitoring antioxidant therapy of diabetes.