Simultaneous voltammetric determination of glutathione, doxorubicin and tyrosine based on the electrocatalytic effect of a nickel(II) complex and of Pt:Co nanoparticles as a conductive mediator

Glutathione (GSH) is an important tripeptide that plays an important role in preventing damage to reactive oxygen species. An electrochemical assay was fabricated for this purpose by modification of a carbon paste electrode (CPE) with bis(1,10-phenanthroline)(1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione)nickel(II) hexafluorophosphate (BPPDNi) as new electro-catalyst and Pt:Co nanoparticle (Pt:CO-NPs) as highly conductive mediator. The analyses were performed at a scan rate of 10 mV/s and at a pH value of 7.4. The BPPDNi/Pt:CO-NPs/CPE showed a high sensitivity and good selectivity for electro-catalytic determination of glutathione (GSH) in nano-molar concentration range. In addition, the BPPDNi/Pt:CO-NPs/CPE was used for the determination of glutathione in the presence of doxorubicin (DOX) and tyrosine (Tyr) with three separated oxidation signals ~160 mV, ~385 mV and ~790 mV vs. Ag/AgCl/KCl sat , respectively. The peak currents of the square wave voltammetric analyses were linearly dependent on glutathione, doxorubicin and tyrosine concentrations in the respective ranges of 0.001–450, 0.5–300 and 1.0–650 μM, with detection limits of 0.5 nM, 0.1 μM and 0.6 μM, respectively. Graphical abstract The first analytical sensor for simultaneous determination of glutathione, doxorubicin and tyrosine.