A Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer-Based Molecular Probe for Cisplatin Detection

Cisplatin, one of the most widely used clinical medications in the field of cancer chemotherapy, which is an indispensable drug type in traditional chemotherapy. Due to the significant toxicity and side effects of typical chemotherapy medications, precise drug concentration monitoring becomes the key. However, because of individual variances, various individuals’ metabolic capacities to medications vary, resulting in differences in actual blood drug concentration in the body under the same dosage. Therefore, it is imperative to create a new low-cost and rapid detection method for the concentration of serum active cisplatin, which is crucial to the chemotherapy effect and quality of life for cancer patients. In this work, based on the chemically cross-linked reaction between active cisplatin and DNA bases, as well as the high sensitivity of Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET), we proposed a new FRET-based method for detecting serum active cisplatin concentration. We constructed a fluorescent molecular probe with a dumbbell shape consisting of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) modified with carboxyl, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), and a single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) sequence. The results reveal that the molecular probe has a strong linear correlation across the active cisplatin concentration range of 52-832 µM. This method can accomplish low-cost, rapid and simple detection of active cisplatin concentration, and further advancements in this work can give a decision-making basis for tailored and accurate cancer treatment.