A dual emission fluorescent probe enables simultaneous detection and discrimination of Cys/Hcy and GSH and its application in cell imaging

摘要

Thiols such as amino acids Cys/Hcy and peptides GSH play vital roles in biological systems. Due to their similar structures and reaction activities, it is still desirable to develop new probes to simultaneously detect and discriminate Cys/Hcy and GSH. Taking advantage of the reductive activity of -SH in these thiols, we combined two fluorophores coumarin and 7-nitrobenzofurazan with an ether bond to form the CA-NBD sensor to detect and discriminate Cys/Hcy and GSH simultaneously. CA-NBD showed high selectivity towards Cys/Hcy and GSH over other analytes with apparent colorimetric and fluorescent signals. At the excitation wavelength of 460 nm, CA-NBD could be used to discriminate Cys/Hcy from GSH with different fluorescence response. Furthermore, CA-NBD was successfully used to detect thiols in living Hela cells with low cytotoxicity.