Glutathione (GSH) is a tripeptide composed of three amino acids, cysteine, glutamic acid and glycine. It is the most abundant biological thiol and used as a reducing agent in human cells. Glutathione deficiency is related to oxidative stress which may...
Glutathione (GSH) is a tripeptide composed of three amino acids, cysteine, glutamic acid and glycine. It is the most abundant biological thiol and used as a reducing agent in human cells. Glutathione deficiency is related to oxidative stress which may lead to progression of cancer. Therefore, a selective detection method for GSH is highly required.
Here, we report iridium complex-based photoluminescent and electrochemiluminescent sensors (1-3) for the selective detection of GSH. Sensors 1-3 consist of a 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-dione (pdo) ancillary ligand as a common reaction site for GSH and 2-phenylpyridine, 1-phenylisoquinoline, and 2-phenylquinoline as main ligands, respectively. The three sensors were prepared to compare the effect of main ligands on the sensitivity and selectivity of GSH detection. All three sensors showed selective turn-on photoluminescence (PL) and turn-off electrochemiluminescence (ECL) response toward GSH among biological thiols. In particular, sensor 1 with a 2-phenylpyridine main ligand showed the most selective and sensitive sensing behavior toward GSH in both PL and ECL. The pdo moiety of 1-3 is reduced to 1,10-phenanthroline-5,6-diol of 1-GSH (or 2-GSH, 3-GSH) upon reaction with GSH. The formation of diol in 1-GSH was demonstrated by the FT-IR, NMR, Mass spectroscopy and UV-Vis spectra.
The PL turn-on and ECL turn-off sensing mechanisms of sensor 1 were investigated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations and electrochemical studies. DFT calculations revealed that the electron density of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital is mainly localized on the di-carbonyl moiety of 1, providing non-radiative pathways, which is cut off by the diol moiety of 1-GSH. The HOMO and LUMO energy levels obtained by DFT calculations were also confirmed by CV measurements. The cyclic voltammetry of a mixture of 1 and GSH showed that the phenolic radical species produced at an anodic potential suppresses the ECL process.