A Water-Soluble Wavy Coordination Polymer of Cu(II) as a Turn-On Luminescent Probe for Histidine and Histidine-Rich Proteins/Peptides

Inorg Chem. 2024 May 6;63(18):8320-8328. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.4c00665. Epub 2024 Apr 25.

Abstract

Histidine plays an essential role in most biological systems. Changes in the homeostasis of histidine and histidine-rich proteins are connected to several diseases. Herein, we report a water-soluble Cu(II) coordination polymer, labeled CuCP, for the fluorimetric detection of histidine and histidine-rich proteins and peptides. Single-crystal structure determination of CuCP revealed a two-dimensional wavy network structure in which a carboxylate group connects the individual Cu(II) dimer unit in a syn-anti conformation. The weakly luminescent and water-soluble CuCP shows turn-on blue emission in the presence of histidine and histidine-rich peptides and proteins. The polymer can also stain histidine-rich proteins via gel electrophoresis. The limits of quantifications for histidine, glycine-histidine, serine-histidine, human serum albumin (HSA), bovine serum albumin, pepsin, trypsin, and lysozyme were found to be 300, 160, 600, 300, 600, 800, 120, and 290 nM, respectively. Utilizing the fluorescence turn-on property of CuCP, we measured HSA quantitatively in the urine samples. We also validated the present urinary HSA measurement assay with existing analytical techniques. Job's plot, 1H NMR, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS), electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), fluorescence, and UV-vis studies confirmed the ligand displacement from CuCP in the presence of histidine.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cattle
  • Coordination Complexes / chemical synthesis
  • Coordination Complexes / chemistry
  • Copper* / analysis
  • Copper* / chemistry
  • Fluorescent Dyes / chemical synthesis
  • Fluorescent Dyes / chemistry
  • Histidine* / analysis
  • Histidine* / chemistry
  • Histidine* / urine
  • Humans
  • Luminescent Agents / chemical synthesis
  • Luminescent Agents / chemistry
  • Peptides* / chemistry
  • Polymers / chemistry
  • Proteins* / analysis
  • Proteins* / chemistry
  • Solubility
  • Water* / chemistry

Substances

  • Copper
  • Histidine
  • Water
  • Peptides
  • Proteins
  • Coordination Complexes
  • histidine-rich proteins
  • Polymers
  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • Luminescent Agents