A novel hydrophilic fluorescent probe for Cu2+ detection and imaging in HeLa cells

Xinyu Wang; Zhuo Li; Jiaojiao Nie; Liangqiang Wu; Weihong Chen; Shaolong Qi; Hai Xu; Jianshi Du; Yaming Shan; Qingbiao Yang

doi:10.1039/d0ra09894a

A novel hydrophilic fluorescent probe for Cu²⁺ detection and imaging in HeLa cells

RSC Adv. 2021 Mar 10;11(17):10264-10271. doi: 10.1039/d0ra09894a. eCollection 2021 Mar 5.

Authors

Xinyu Wang^{1

2

3}, Zhuo Li^{2

3}, Jiaojiao Nie⁴, Liangqiang Wu^{2

3}, Weihong Chen², Shaolong Qi^{1

3}, Hai Xu², Jianshi Du^{1

3}, Yaming Shan⁴, Qingbiao Yang^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University Changchun 130033 China dujs@jlu.edu.cn.
² College of Chemistry, Jilin University Changchun 130021 China yangqb@jlu.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Lymphatic Surgery Jilin Province, Engineering Laboratory of Lymphatic Surgery Jilin Province Changchun 130033 China.
⁴ National Engineering Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine, School of Life Sciences, Jilin University Changchun 130012 China shanym@jlu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Copper is an essential element in living systems and plays an important role in human physiology; therefore, methods to detect the concentration of copper ions in living organisms are important. Herein, we report a highly water-soluble naphthalimide-based fluorescent probe that can be used for the detection of Cu²⁺. The probe, BNQ, has high selectivity and sensitivity. The fluorescence intensity of the probe at 520 nm was visible to the naked eye under a UV lamp; upon the gradual addition of Cu²⁺, there was a colour change from green to nearly colourless. Furthermore, the detection limit of BNQ for Cu²⁺ was 45.5 nM. The detection mechanism was investigated using a Job's plot and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In addition, owing to great biocompatibility, we were able to successfully use BNQ to detect Cu²⁺ in living HeLa cells with low toxicity.