Stable Luminescent Poly(Allylaminehydrochloride)-Templated Copper Nanoclusters for Selectively Turn-Off Sensing of Deferasirox in β-Thalassemia Plasma

• Published in: Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2021-12, Vol.14 (12), p.1314
• Main Authors: Lin, Hung-Ju, Wang, Chun-Chi, Kou, Hwang-Shang, Cheng, Cheng-Wei, Wu, Shou-Mei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Blood diseases; Blood transfusions; Bone marrow; Clinical medicine; deferasirox; DFX; Nanomaterials; Nanoparticles; PAH-Cu NCs; Particle size; Plasma; sensing; β-thalassemia
• ISSN: 1424-8247; 1424-8247
• DOI: 10.3390/ph14121314

Highly stable and facile one-pot copper nanoclusters (Cu NCs) coated with poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) have been synthesized for selectively sensing deferasirox (DFX) in β-thalassemia plasma. DFX is an important drug used for treating iron overloading in β-thalassemia, but needs to be monitored due to certain toxicity. In this study, the PAH-Cu NCs showed highly stable fluorescence with emission wavelengths at 450 nm. The DFX specifically interacted with the copper nanocluster to turn off the fluorescence of the PAH-Cu NCs, and could be selectively quantified through the fluorescence quenching effect. The linear range of DFX in plasma analyzed by PAH-Cu NCs was 1.0-100.0 µg/mL (r = 0.985). The relative standard deviation (RSD) and relative error (RE) were lower than 6.51% and 7.57%, respectively, showing excellent reproducibility of PAH-Cu NCs for sensing DFX in plasma. This method was also successfully applied for an analysis of three clinical plasma samples from β-thalassemia patients taking DFX. The data presented high similarity with that obtained through a capillary electrophoresis method. According to the results, the PAH-Cu NCs could be used as a tool for clinically sensing DFX in human plasma for clinical surveys.