Synthetic fluorescent probes to map metallostasis and intracellular fate of zinc and copper

• Overview of synthetic fluorescent probes for cellular Cu and Zn detection.
• Dynamic concept of metallostasis.
• ‘Sophisticated’ metal probes to understand metal-mediated cell signaling.
• Perspective routes for metal coordination compounds toward dynamic metallostasis.

The intracellular tracking of zinc and copper, metals essential for life, is nowadays pivotal to unravel the complex mechanism that involves the physiological or pathological role of such elements. Traditional methods to determine cellular copper and zinc levels, including those based on the use of fluorescent probes, are aimed at scrutinizing the metallome, to identify both the individual species and their concentrations. The metallome, however, is also a nonstatic concept, as it responds to environmental perturbations in biologically relevant pathways, with highly dynamic spatiotemporal changes. Through an overview of improvements and limits of the state of the art of synthetic fluorescent probes for the detection of intracellular zinc and copper, we report here new routes for the design and the synthesis of novel metal coordination compounds able to overcome the present weaknesses for a new concept of dynamic metallostasis.

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