Probe with large Stokes shift for effective cysteine imaging in living cells

Fengxia Zou; Chun Wang; Wenwu Song; Lujie Shen; Runsheng Xu; Miao Wang; Minmin Wang; Tongming Sun; Jin Wang

doi:10.1016/j.saa.2021.119775

Probe with large Stokes shift for effective cysteine imaging in living cells

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2021 Aug 5:257:119775. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2021.119775. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Authors

Fengxia Zou¹, Chun Wang², Wenwu Song¹, Lujie Shen¹, Runsheng Xu¹, Miao Wang³, Minmin Wang⁴, Tongming Sun⁵, Jin Wang⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, PR China.
² School of Textile and Clothing, Nantong University, Nantong 226001, PR China; Nantong Key Laboratory of Intelligent and New Energy Materials, Nantong 226001, PR China.
³ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, PR China; Nantong Key Laboratory of Intelligent and New Energy Materials, Nantong 226001, PR China.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, PR China; Nantong Key Laboratory of Intelligent and New Energy Materials, Nantong 226001, PR China. Electronic address: mmwang0528@ntu.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, PR China. Electronic address: stm7314@ntu.edu.cn.
⁶ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, PR China; Nantong Key Laboratory of Intelligent and New Energy Materials, Nantong 226001, PR China. Electronic address: wangjin110@ntu.edu.cn.

PMID: 33862373
DOI: 10.1016/j.saa.2021.119775

Abstract

A new fluorescence probe L, which featured with a large Stokes shift (216 nm), was designed for sensitive detection of cysteine (Cys) and a potential sensing mechanism derived from excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) was proposed. More importantly, probe L exhibits higher selective to Cys than other amino acid due to its specific cyclization between acrylate group and Cys. Meanwhile, the probe L shows a low detection limit of 8.82 × 10^-8 M, which is enough for detecting Cys in organisms. Furthermore, this probe displays high biocompatibility and can image Cys in living cells.

Keywords: Cell imaging; Coumarin; Cys detection; ESIPT; Large Stokes shift.

MeSH terms

Cysteine*
Diagnostic Imaging
Fluorescent Dyes*
HeLa Cells
Humans
Protons

Substances

Fluorescent Dyes
Protons
Cysteine