Cystamine-cobalt complex based fluorescent sensor for detection of NADH and cancer cell imaging

The pronounced demand of sensing of biological analyzes which play a significant role in progress of cancer cells encouraged us to develop a novel chemosensor having high selectivity and sensitivity for NADH. Therefore, imine linked dipodal receptor (L1) was synthesized and its organic nanoparticles (L1-ONP) were prepared using reprecipitation method to enhance their water solubility. These ONPs form a metal complex with Co(II) which was characterized by UV-vis absorption and Fluorescence Spectroscopy. The ONPs show highly sensitive affinity having a low detection limit (LOD) of 16.95 nM for the cobalt ions. The prepared ONPs metal complex exhibits high selectivity and sensitivity to sense the NADH with a very low LOD of 83.89 nM without any interference from other potentially interfering biological molecules. Fluorescence response from NADH was also not affected by pH and UV irradiation. The sensor was also employed for detection of NADH in MCF-7 cells.