terephthalaldehyde, copper(II) nitrate (pentahydrate), sodium borohydride,
and solvents were obtained from Sigma Aldrich. All acids used in the
specificity test were obtained from Fisher Scientific, with the exception
of oxalic acid, oxaloacetic acid, and uric acid, which were obtained
from Sigma Aldrich. Highest purity available was used in every case,
and HPLC-grade solvents were used. All black 96 well assay plates
(Microfluor 2Black Microtiter) were obtained from Thermo Scientific.
All plates were read with a Bio-Tek FLx-800 fluorescence plate reader
(BioTek, Winooski, VT) on the “top read” setting with
sensitivity set to 60. NMR was performed on a Bruker Avance III Ultrashield
400 Plus spectrometer (Bruker BioSpin Corporation, Billerica, MA).
Mass spectrometry was performed on an Advion expression CMS Electrospray
Ionization instrument (Advion, Ithica, NY). All graphs and associated
calculations were produced and performed using GraphPad Prism software
(San Diego, CA).