A Fluorescent Probe for Selective Facile Detection of H2S in Serum Based on an Albumin-Binding Fluorophore and Effective Masking Reagent

Suji Lee; Dan-Bi Sung; Jong Seok Lee; Min Su Han

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c04659

A Fluorescent Probe for Selective Facile Detection of H₂S in Serum Based on an Albumin-Binding Fluorophore and Effective Masking Reagent

ACS Omega. 2020 Dec 9;5(50):32507-32514. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c04659. eCollection 2020 Dec 22.

Authors

Suji Lee¹, Dan-Bi Sung², Jong Seok Lee^{2

3}, Min Su Han¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), 123 Cheomdangwagi-ro, Buk-gu, Gwangju 61005, Korea.
² Marine Natural Products Chemistry Laboratory, Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), Busan 49111, Korea.
³ Department of Applied Ocean Science, Korea University of Science and Technology, Daejeon 34113, Republic of Korea.

Abstract

A fluorescent probe (4-(2-(4-(diethylamino)phenyl)-4-methyl-5-oxo-4,5-dihydrothieno[3,2-b]pyridin-7-yl)phenyl 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonate, KF-DNBS) for facile detection of H₂S in serum was developed based on the combination of an environment-sensitive fluorophore (2-(4-(diethylamino)phenyl)-7-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-4-methylthieno[3,2-b]pyridin-5(4H)-one, KF) with albumin and the 2,4-dinitrobenzene sulfonyl (DNBS) group as a recognition unit for H₂S. KF-DNBS showed remarkable fluorescence enhancement due to H₂S-triggered thiolysis followed by the formation of a fluorescent fluorophore (KF)-albumin complex. The H₂S detection limit of KF-DNBS was estimated to be 3.2 μM, and KF-DNBS achieves a high selectivity to H₂S over biothiols by employing 2-formyl benzene boronic acid (2-FBBA) as an effective masking reagent. Furthermore, under optimized sensing conditions, KF-DNBS could be applied to accurately determine spiked H₂S in human serum without the need for any further procedure for the removal of serum proteins.