Micromotor for removal/detection of blood copper ion

Abstract Blood copper poisoning seriously affects human health, and the therapeutic effect of traditional treatment methods has been limited owing to their long treatment cycle, high cost, and separation of diagnosis and treatment. Based on the micromotor technology, a new kind of micromotor magnetic mesoporous silica/ZnS·Mn/gold/tetraethylenepentamine/heparin (MMS/ZM/Au/T/Hep) was reported for the direct removal/detection of excessive blood copper, achieving the integration of diagnosis and treatment. The structure, motion behavior and biocompatibility of the MMS/ZM/Au/T/Hep micromotors were characterized. Further, the removal efficiency and fluorescence detection of the excessive blood copper by the micromotors were investigated. Results indicated that the removal rate of blood copper ion was as high as 74.1% due to the synergistic effect of the mesoporous structure, adsorbent functional group and movement ability. Meanwhile, the MMS/ZM/Au/T/Hep micromotors can selectively monitor blood copper concentration according to the change of fluorescence signal after separation from blood with the limit of detection of 0.33 ppm and the limit of quantification of 1.10 ppm, respectively. The precision (%) of inter-day and intra-day variations was 1.11% and 18.07%. This work may provide possible options for removing and detecting excess copper ions in blood.