Fabrication of Bovine Serum Albumin@Au Particles for Colorimetric Detection of Glutathione

Abnormal concentrations of glutathione (GSH) are important indicators of many human diseases such as cancers, liver damage, AIDS, and Alzheimer's disease. In this work, a kind of bovine serum albumin (BSA)@Au core-shell particles were fabricated using 110 nm BSA aggregates as a template, onto which gold shells composed of Au nanoparticles (NPs) were grown through a seeded growth approach. The morphology of the Au shells deposited on BSA aggregates was tuned from sparse to dense distribution of Au NPs by increasing the concentration of silver ions contained in the growth solutions. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peaks of BSA@Au particles were tunable in the range from 550 to 620 nm, corresponding to evolution in color from red to blue due to the enhanced plasmonic coupling among the Au NPs in the shell. The blue BSA@Au particles were qualified for colorimetric detection of GSH since GSH may act as a swelling agent for BSA@Au particles by breaking the intermolecular disulfide bonds in BSA aggregates. With an increased amount of GSH presented, the color of BSA@Au particles evolved from blue to red attributed to gradual swelling of BSA@Au particles and thus increased the distance among the Au NPs in the shell, which was readily recognized by naked eyes or recorded by ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy. This colorimetric method exhibited good selectivity and anti-interference capability in the analysis of GSH in real samples. In addition, a solid sensing system for the detection of GSH was designed and fabricated by dispersing BSA@Au particles into an agarose hydrogel.