4-mercaptophenylboronic acid functionalized gold nanoparticles for colorimetric sialic acid detection.

A simple and selective colorimetric sensor for sialic acid detection, based on the aggregation of 4-mercaptophenylboronic acid functionalized gold nanoparticles (4-MPBA-AuNPs) was developed. The color of the solution changed from wine-red to blue after binding with sialic acid. The colorimetric sensor provided good analytical performances with a linear dynamic range of 80µM to 2.00mM and a 68±2µM limit of detection without any effect from possible interferences and sample matrix. In addition, the quantitative results were obtained within only 10min. This developed sensor was used to detect sialic acid in blood serum samples and the results were in good agreement with those from the current periodate-resorcinol method (P>0.05) thus indicating that this developed colorimetric sensor can be used as an alternative method for sialic acid detection with a shorter analysis time and a high accuracy.