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Updated: Apr 10, 2026

Synthesis of Indoxyl-glycosides for Detection of Glycosidase Activities
Published on: May 27, 2015
Bio-inspired Maillard-Like reactions enable a simple and sensitive assay for colorimetric detection of methylglyoxal
Shih-Ting Wang1, Yiyang Lin, Christopher D Spicer
1Department of Materials, Department of Bioengineering and Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK. m.stevens@imperial.ac.uk.
Abstract:
A simple and selective assay for detecting methylglyoxal (MGO), a metabolite associated with diabetes, was developed by combining a bio-inspired chemical reaction with the anti-aggregation of gold nanoparticles. This assay could detect MGO at as low as 1 microM by the naked eye and 0.05 microM by UV/vis spectrometry, within the clinical range marking oxidative stress in diabetes, and demonstrated high selectivity over other physiologically relevant ketones and aldehydes.
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