NCL-based mitochondrial-targeting fluorescent probe for the detection of Glutathione in living cells

Tongxia Jin, Mengyu Cui, Dan Wu, Weiping Zhu, Yufang Xu, Xuhong Qian

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

Glutathione (GSH) plays a critical role in maintaining cellular redox homeostasis in biological system. Mitochondrion is a pivotal organelle for cellular aerobic respiration and its disorder is associated with impaired redox balance, leading to cell death. In this work, we designed and synthesized a non-invasive “off-on” mitochondrial-targeting fluorescent probe QZ for the detection of GSH in living cells. Based on the mechanism of native chemical ligation (NCL) and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), a rhodamine B derivative, QZ was prepared, by choosing aromatic thioester bond as the selective reaction site. QZ exhibited excellent detection capability for GSH over Cys and Hcy. Upon addition of GSH to QZ solution, a remarkably enhanced fluorescence was observed with a limit of detection of 2.98 µmol/L. Furthermore, QZ was found to possess the specific mitochondrial localization ability in cell imaging experiments. Moreover, with exogenous and endogenous stimulations, QZ could image GSH in living cells.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3899-3902
Number of pages4
JournalChinese Chemical Letters
Volume32
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Fluorescent probe
  • Glutathione
  • In vivo imaging
  • NCL

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