| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1230643 | Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy | 2016 | 7 Pages |
•A new fluorescence turn-on probe for biothiols was developed.•The probe could selectively detect cysteine at pH 3.5.•The probe responded well to cysteine, glutathione and homocysteine at pH 5.5.•The probe was successfully applied for imaging of thiols in living cells.
A new biothiol-selective fluorescent probe 1 based on photoinduced electron transfer (PET) mechanism was designed and synthesized. The UV–Vis absorption and fluorescent emission properties of probe 1 towards various analytes were studied in detail. The probe exhibited a large stokes shift (~ 200 nm) after reacted with biothiols and could selectively detect cysteine (Cys) in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO)/H2O solution (9:1, v/v, 10 mM phosphate buffer saline, pH 3.5) over glutathione (GSH), homocysteine (Hcy) and other analytes with a detection limit of 0.117 μM. In addition, probe 1 responded well to GSH, Hcy and Cys in the same above solution with pH 5.5 and got the detection limits of 0.151 μM, 0.128 μM and 0.037 μM, respectively. Probe 1 was of very low cytotoxicity and successfully applied for imaging of thiols in living cells.
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