Facile and effective detection of dopamine (DA) plays a significant role in current clinical applications. Substantially, special optical nanomaterials are important for fabricating easy-to-control, cheap, selective, and portable fluorescence DA sensors with superior performance. Herein, carbon dots (CDs) prepared from melting method were applied as signal to establish a simple but effective fluorescence strategy for DA determination based on the enzymatic activity of acid phosphatase (ACP), which induces DA to form polydopamine (pDA). The formed pDA caused by the enzymatic oxidization of ACP toward DA can interact with CDs through the inner filter effect. Such behavior effectively quenched the CDs’ fluorescence. The degree of fluorescence quenching of CDs was positively correlated with the DA content. Under the optimized reaction conditions, the proposed fluorescence method exhibited a comparable analytical performance with other DA sensors with good selectivity. Furthermore, this method has been successfully applied to detect DA in DA hydrochloride injection and human serum samples. It shows that this method features potential practical application value and is expected to be used in clinical research.

Tyrosinase (TYR) plays a pivotal role in the biosynthesis of melanin, and its activity level holds critical implications for vitiligo, melanoma cancer, and food nutritional value. The sensitive determination of TYR activity is of great significance for both fundamental research and clinical investigations. In this work, we successfully synthesized silicon-doped carbon quantum dots (Si-CQDs) through a one-pot hydrothermal method with trans-aconitic acid as carbon source and N-[3-(Trimethoxysilyl)propyl]ethylenediamine as the dopant, exhibiting remarkable fluorescence quantum yield (QY) and photostability. Correspondingly, Si-CQDs were used as a probe to construct a sensitive, rapid, and user-friendly fluorescence method for TYR detection. The method relied on the oxidation of isoprenaline (ISO) by TYR, where Si-CQDs were employed as a highly efficient probe. The testing mechanism was the internal filtering effect (IFE) observed between Si-CQDs and the oxidative system of ISO and TYR. Under the optimized conditions, the fluorescence strategy exhibited a detection range of 0.05-2.0 U/mL for TYR with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.041 U/mL. Furthermore, we successful demonstrated the accurate determination of TYR levels in human serum, showcasing the promising potential of this method in various practical scenarios.

Background: Therefore, the development of reliable analytical techniques with high selectivity and sensitivity to detect hydrazine is required for the protection of human health and safety. Objectives: Traditional methods for detecting N2H4 are frequently time-consuming, less accurate, and unsuitable for the analysis of living systems. Numerous fluorescent probes for hydrazine have been produced and gained some valuable results recently. The creation of a simple fluorescent probe for hydrazine detection is the goal of this project Method: In this study, 300 µL of probe 3-methyl-2-oxo-2H-chromen-7-yl propionate (MOCP) was mixed with an equivalent amount of the solution of each analyte to obtain the measurement solution. Following a 10-minute room temperature incubation period, the fluorescence spectra of the resultant solution were recorded. Results: The fluorescence intensity of the probe was noticeably enhanced when N2H4 was added to the probe, but almost no fluorescence enhancement was observed when other competitive ions were added. Conclusion: A hydrazine fluorescent probe based on 4-hydroxycoumarin fluorophore was developed. The probe MOCP displayed high sensitivity and selectivity for hydrazine, with a color change from colourless to blue for detection by the naked eye. Moreover, it demonstrated a low detection limit of 20 nM and a fast reaction time of 30 s.