Center for Advanced Analytical Science, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Sensing Materials and Devices, Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for Photoelectric Sensing Materials and Devices, c/o School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China.
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Shenzhen), Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, 518107, PR China.
Talanta. 2024 Jan 15;267:125251. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2023.125251. Epub 2023 Sep 27.
Glutathione (GSH) as one most abundant thiol, acts as important roles in regulating cellular redox activities, and various diseases are closely related with its abnormal levels. Thus, monitoring intracellular GSH levels is essential for understanding cellular metabolism of many related diseases. In this work, we firstly reported a new fluorescence turn-on sensor, which was capable of selectively, sensitively and rapid sensing GSH over other thiols, especially cysteine and homocysteine in solutions and living cells. A meso-aryltellurium boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) was firstly designed and synthesized, which showed silenced emission due to an efficient photoinduced electron transfer (PET) process from electron-rich Te to BODIPY, and then upon exposure to GSH, the meso-Te-C bond could be rapidly cleaved by the thiol group of GSH, thus resulting in an obvious fluorescence "turn-on" phenomenon through inhibition of the PET effect. This probe exhibited excellent selectivity and sensitivity towards GSH with a short response time of 2 min, showing a remarkable fluorescence enhancement observed at 541 nm with a large fluorescence quantum yield increase from nearly 0 to 0.73 upon excitation at 500 nm in PBS/CHCN (9/1, v/v). The detection limit towards GSH was further calculated to be 1.7 nM by the linear fluorescence change at 541 nm in the GSH-concentration ranging from 0 to 4 μM. Furthermore, its sensing mechanism was validated by using mass spectrometry, confirming the rapid cleavage of the Te-C bond by GSH. Finally, cell imaging experiments demonstrated that this probe could successfully detect GSH in living cells, highlighting its potential for rapid and sensitive detection of intracellular GSH level changes. Therefore, a new meso-aryltellurium-BODIPY fluorescence turn-on sensor was firstly developed, which could selectively, sensitively and fast detect cellular GSH over other thiols based on the rapid cleavage of the meso Te-C bond.
谷胱甘肽（GSH）作为一种最丰富的巯基化合物，在调节细胞氧化还原活性方面发挥着重要作用，并且各种疾病都与其异常水平密切相关。因此，监测细胞内 GSH 水平对于理解许多相关疾病的细胞代谢至关重要。在这项工作中，我们首次报道了一种新的荧光开启传感器，该传感器能够选择性、灵敏地快速检测溶液和活细胞中的 GSH，而对其他巯基化合物，特别是半胱氨酸和同型半胱氨酸具有高选择性。首次设计并合成了一个中位芳基碲硼二吡咯甲川（BODIPY），由于富电子 Te 到 BODIPY 的光诱导电子转移（PET）过程，该分子表现出沉默的发射，然后，当暴露于 GSH 时，GSH 的巯基基团可以快速切断中位-Te-C 键，从而通过抑制 PET 效应导致明显的荧光“开启”现象。该探针对 GSH 具有优异的选择性和灵敏度，响应时间短至 2 分钟，在 PBS/CHCN（9/1，v/v）中，在 500nm 激发时，在 541nm 处观察到明显的荧光增强，荧光量子产率从几乎 0 增加到 0.73。通过在 0 到 4μM 的 GSH 浓度范围内，在 541nm 处的线性荧光变化，进一步计算出该探针对 GSH 的检测限为 1.7nM。此外，通过使用质谱法验证了其传感机制，证实了 GSH 可快速切断 Te-C 键。最后，细胞成像实验表明，该探针可以成功地在活细胞中检测 GSH，突出了其用于快速灵敏地检测细胞内 GSH 水平变化的潜力。因此，我们首次开发了一种新型的中位芳基碲-BODIPY 荧光开启传感器，该传感器能够基于中位 Te-C 键的快速断裂，选择性、灵敏地快速检测细胞中的 GSH 而对其他巯基化合物具有高选择性。
