College of Life Sciences and Chemistry, Hunan University of Technology, Zhuzhou 412008, PR China.
College of Packaging and Materials Engineering, Hunan University of Technology, Zhuzhou 412007, PR China.
Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2022 Oct 5;278:121257. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2022.121257. Epub 2022 Apr 22.
Highly sensitive and specific imaging of copper ion (Cu) in living cells is essential for better understanding the physiological and metabolic processes. We develop a novel fluorescent probe based on carbazole-thiophene for specific Cu detection in living cells. Job's plot and density functional theory (DFT) confirmed a stoichiometric ratio of 2:1 between the probe molecules and Cu. This probe exhibits strong fluorescence in aqueous media, while its fluorescence intensity significantly decreased in the presence of Cu. An in vitro assay shows that the fluorescent probe has rapid response within 5 s and high sensitivity for the detection of Cu in the range from 1 to 10 μM with a detection limit of 0.29 μM. Live cell studies reveal that the fluorescent probe has good cell-membrane permeability and can successfully visualize the fluctuation of the intracellular Cu concentration. In addition, the fluorescent probe has low cytotoxicity, which may provide a new tool for monitoring other analytes in living cells.
在活细胞中对铜离子（Cu）进行高灵敏度和高特异性的成像，对于更好地理解生理和代谢过程至关重要。我们开发了一种基于咔唑-噻吩的新型荧光探针，用于在活细胞中特异性检测 Cu。Job 图和密度泛函理论（DFT）证实了探针分子与 Cu 的化学计量比为 2:1。该探针在水相介质中表现出强荧光，而在存在 Cu 的情况下其荧光强度显著降低。体外实验表明，荧光探针在 5 s 内具有快速响应，并且对 Cu 的检测范围从 1 到 10 μM 具有高灵敏度，检测限为 0.29 μM。活细胞研究表明，荧光探针具有良好的细胞膜通透性，可以成功可视化细胞内 Cu 浓度的波动。此外，该荧光探针具有低细胞毒性，这可能为监测活细胞中其他分析物提供新工具。
