Short noteA novel near-infrared fluorescent probe for cysteine in living cells based on a push-pull dicyanoisophorone system

•A novel turn-on NIR fluorescent probe for Cys was developed.•The probe can detect Cys with high selectivity and sensitivity in aqueous solution.•The detect limitation of Cys is down to 0.16 μM.•This probe can be a useful tool for the selective detection of Cys in living cells.

The near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe for rapid, highly sensitive and selective detection of cysteine (Cys) has great significance in both biological and environment sciences. In this work, a novel and specific dicyanoisophorone-based NIR probe for Cys was developed. This probe features remarkably large Stokes shift, with turn-on fluorescence property for highly sensitive and selective detection of Cys over other amino acids including the similar structured homocysteine (Hcy) and glutathione (GSH). The probe based on the conjugate addition-cyclization reaction, and has low detection limit of Cys. Furthermore, this probe shows great potential for Cys detection, which was successfully applied to bioimage Cys in living cells with low cytotoxicity.

Graphical abstractA novel turn-on near-infrared fluorescent probe for detection of Cys with high selectivity and sensitivity and its bioimaging application in living was first proposed.Download high-res image (63KB)Download full-size image