Evaluation of the Direct Interaction between Amino Acids and Glutathione-Coated CdTe Quantum Dots and Application in Urinalysis for Histidine Determination

The present work aimed to direct amino acid (AA) sensing by quantum dots (QD) and development of an analytical method for potential fast clinical tests. Notably, AA with a positive charge or neutral polar chains, namely L-histidine (His) and L-threonine (Thr), responded to glutathione-coated CdTe (GSH-CdTe) (ΔF ≤ 90%, variation of fluorescence intensity). However, in ammoniacal buffer (0.25 mol L-1) at pH 8.0, 2.2 nm GSH-CdTe responded only to His. Static quenching with complex association constant (Ksv) varying from 2.81 to 0.94 (10 L mol-1) as well as van der Waals forces and/or hydrogen ...