Novel Fluorometric Assay for Detection of Cysteine as a Reducing Agent and Template in Formation of Copper Nanoclusters

This study was designed to develop a highly selective and sensitive method towards fluorimetric sensing of cysteine (Cys) in water and human serum by using copper nanocluster. The Cys-CuNCs were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), FTIR, fluorescence and UV–Vis analysis. Spectroscopic evidences showed different intensities that were attributed to the different size of Cys-CuNCs. Enhancement in fluorescence intensity of copper nanoclusters with an increase in concentration of cysteine may enable them to be good candidates in detection systems. Selective recognition of cysteine in aqueous and serum samples was achieved during the formation of various copper nanoclusters (Cys-CuNCs) with different size. Under the optimized conditions, two linear range of the nanobiosensor for cysteine were between the 5 μM to 50 μM with detection limit of 2.4 μM and between 60 μM to 500 μM with detection limit of 55 μM. Fluorescence intensity increased with addition of cysteine concentration from 5 to 50 μM. The proposed low-cost nanobiosensor exhibited high reproducibility and good selectivity. It has been used also for the determination of cysteine in human serum samples with recoveries of 97–103 % and RSDs of 1.8–3.6 %