A sensitive and selective chemosensor for ascorbic acid based on a fluorescent nitroxide switch

•The limit of detection for AsA was 20 nM.•The sensor shows a good linear relationship from 80 nM to 50 μM.•We determined the concentration of AsA in blood serum to be 25 μM.•We determined the concentration of AsA in HEK 293 cell lysate to be 1.51 μM.•The sensor is cell permeable and can be used for monitoring AsA in living cells.

Ascorbic acid (AsA), also known as vitamin C, is a vital small-molecule antioxidant with multiple functions in vivo. It’s the major natural antioxidant found in plants and is also an essential component of human nutrition. AsA plays a key role in many diseases-related biological metabolism. Therefore, sensitive and selective detection of AsA is greatly important in pharmaceutical, clinical and food industry. Here a sensitive and selective sensor for ascorbic acid detection based on the recovered fluorescence of NAPS-NO (N-propyl-triethoxysilane-4-(4-ylamino-1-oxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperdine)- naphthalimide) probe is described. The fluorescence of the naphthalimide moiety of NAPS-NO is inhibited by the nitroxide group, which is covalently linked to the fluorophore. Then, ascorbic acid reacts rapidly with the nitroxide moiety of NAPS-NO to form hydroxylamine, and the fluorescence properties of the naphthalimide moiety are recovered and the ESR signal decayed. Over a wide range from 80 nM to 50 μM, a good linear relationship between the fluorescence intensity and the concentration of ascorbic acid was found and the detection limit was estimated to be as low as 20 nM. To confirm the practical usefulness of the fluorophore–nitroxide probe, we demonstrated the use of NAPS-NO for the measurement of AsA in human blood serum and also successfully determined the concentration of AsA in HEK 293 cell lysate. Results from confocal laser scanning microscopy experiments demonstrated that this chemosensor is cell permeable and can be used as a fluorescent probe for monitoring ascorbic acid in living cells.

Graphical abstractThis presented sensor NAPS-NO is capable to detect ascorbic acid with high sensitivity and good selectivity. Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide