Chiral D/L-His@Cu NPs with peroxidase-like activity for colorimetric detection of D/L-DOPA

Chiral discrimination of drug enantiomers is essential in neurodegenerative disease therapy. This study presented a chiral sensing platform utilizing L-histidine-functionalized copper nanoparticles (L-His@Cu NPs) with peroxidase-mimicking activity for the colorimetric detection of DOPA enantiomers. L-His@Cu NPs exhibited enhanced affinity and catalytic inhibition toward L-DOPA over its D-counterpart. Under optimized conditions, the sensor demonstrated a wide linear detection range of 0.02-4 mM and detection limits of 0.0107 mM for D-DOPA and 0.0129 mM for L-DOPA. The system also enabled enantiomeric excess analysis with high accuracy. Practical application in real pharmaceutical and water samples showed excellent recovery (92.32-104.18%) and stability over 50 days. This work offered a simple, cost-effective, and reliable strategy for on-site chiral discrimination, holding significant potential for pharmaceutical analysis and quality control.