Colorimetric Quantification of Glucose and Cholesterol in Human Blood Using a Nanocomposite Entrapping Magnetic Nanoparticles and Oxidases

Abstract

In this study, a microscale well-plate colorimetric assay for the multiplexed detection of glucose and cholesterol in clinical human blood samples has been developed. This system utilized one-pot nanocomposite entrapping Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) as peroxidase mimetics and glucose oxidase (GOx)/cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) in mesoporous silica to detect glucose and cholesterol in blood samples. The sensing mechanism involves the generation of H2O2 by the catalytic action of an immobilized oxidase on the target molecules in the sample. This subsequently activates the MNPs in the mesopores, thereby leading to the conversion of the substrate into a colored end product. This strategy is used to detect the target glucose or cholesterol molecules in the concentration range of 15-250 mg/dL. The response is highly linear and the lower detection limit is 7.5 mg/dL. The aforementioned colorimetric assay is extremely convenient, and it exhibits a high degree of linearity, precision, and reproducibility when employing real human blood samples. Therefore, this assay can be used in clinical practice for the multiplexed and reliable quantification of glucose and cholesterol.