Synthesis of AuSe bonded nanoprobe for specific detection of thrombin in lung cancer cells

Thrombin is related to malignant tumors and promotes tumors growth, metastasis, angiogenesis, and hence its detection in lung cancer cells is of great significance. Since previous AuS bonded fluorescent nanoprobe may cause false positive results due to the interference of in vivo biothiol, the AuSe bond strategy with high resistance towards the biological thiols’ interference was applied. In lung cancer cells, the nanoprobe can be specifically cleaved by thrombin to recover its fluorescence, realizing high-sensitivity thrombin detection (detection range 10–250 U/L, detection limit 5.8 U/L). Hence, this work broadens the application of AuSe bond nanoprobes, and offers a promising tool for studying in vivo enzyme activity.