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Surface PEGylation of ionophore-based microspheres enables determination of serum sodium and potassium ion concentration under flow cytometry

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Abstract

We present here an ionophore-based ion-selective optode (ISO) platform to detect potassium and sodium concentrations in serum through flow cytometry. The ion-selective microsensors were based on polyethylene glycol (PEG)-modified polystyrene (PS) microspheres (PEG-PS). Ratiometric response curves were observed using peak channel fluorescence intensities for K+ (10−6 M to 0.1 M) and Na+ (10−4 M to 0.2 M) with sufficient selectivity for clinical diagnosis. Due to the matrix effect, proteins such as albumin and immunoglobulin caused an obvious increase in response for serum sample determination. To solve this problem, 4-arm PEG chains were covalently attached onto the surface of PS microspheres through a two-step reaction, which improved the stability and combated pollution of microspheres. As a preliminary application, potassium and sodium concentrations in human serums were successfully determined by the PEG-PS microsensors through flow cytometry.

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Funding

The authors thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21874063) for financial support.

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  1. Xinfeng Du and Renjie Wang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Xinfeng Du & Xiaojiang Xie

  2. Department of Chemistry, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Renjie Wang, Jingying Zhai & Xiaojiang Xie

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  1. Xinfeng Du
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Correspondence to Xiaojiang Xie.

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Serum was with informed consent of the volunteers from the Department of Clinic Medical Center, Dazhou Central Hospital, China. All samples were conformed to the Helsinki Declaration and approved by the Ethics Committee of Dazhou Central Hospital and Southern University of Science and Technology.

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Published in the topical collection Young Investigators in (Bio-)Analytical Chemistry 2023 with guest editors Zhi-Yuan Gu, Beatriz Jurado-Sánchez, Thomas H. Linz, Leandro Wang Hantao, Nongnoot Wongkaew, and Peng Wu.

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Du, X., Wang, R., Zhai, J. et al. Surface PEGylation of ionophore-based microspheres enables determination of serum sodium and potassium ion concentration under flow cytometry. Anal Bioanal Chem 415, 4233–4243 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-022-04301-2

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