Highly sensitive determination of hydrogen peroxide and glucose by fluorescence correlation spectroscopy

Background: Because H ₂O ₂ is generated by various oxidase-catalyzed reactions, a highly sensitive determination method of H ₂O ₂ is applicable to measurements of low levels of various oxidases and their substrates such as glucose, lactate, glutamate, urate, xanthine, choline, cholesterol and NADPH. We propose herein a new, highly sensitive method for the measurement of H ₂O ₂ and glucose using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). Methodology/Principal Findings: FCS has the advantage of allowing us to determine the number of fluorescent molecules. FCS measures the fluctuations in fluorescence intensity caused by fluorescent probe movement in a small light cavity with a defined volume generated by confocal illumination. We thus developed a highly sensitive determination system of H ₂O ₂ by FCS, where horseradish peroxidase (HRP) catalyzes the formation of a covalent bond between fluorescent molecules and proteins in the presence of H ₂O ₂. Our developed system gave a linear calibration curve for H ₂O ₂ in the range of 28 to 300 nM with the detection limit of 8 nM. In addition, by coupling with glucose oxidase (GOD)-catalyzed reaction, the method allows to measure glucose in the range of 80 nM to 1.5 μM with detection limit of 24 nM. The method was applicable to the assay of glucose in blood plasma. The mean concentration of glucose in normal human blood plasma was determined to be 4.9 mM. Conclusions/Significance: In comparison with commercial available methods, the detection limit and the minimum value of determination for glucose are at least 2 orders of magnitude more sensitive in our system. Such a highly sensitive method leads the fact that only a very small amount of plasma (20 nL) is needed for the determination of glucose concentration in blood plasma.