Fe3+-selective naked-eye ‘off–on’ fluorescent probe: its crystal structure and imaging in living cells

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel dual-targeting fluorescent probes for detection of Fe3+ in the lysosomes of hepatocytes mediated by galactose-morpholine moieties

In this work, novel dual-targeting probes composed of galactose and morpholine were designed and synthesized for monitoring Fe³⁺ levels in the lysosome of hepatocyte. MP-Gal-1, MP-Gal-2 and MP-Gal-3 showed good selectivity and sensitivities toward Fe³⁺ with the detection limits of 9.40 × 10^-8 M, 7.68 × 10^-8 M and 7.10 × 10^-8 M, respectively. 1:2 stoichiometry is the most likely recognition mode between probe and Fe³⁺. Low toxic MP-Gal-1, MP-Gal-2 and MP-Gal-3 exhibited favorable hepatic targeting effect in both cell and tissue levels, which was because the galactose group of probe could be recognized by ASGPR overexpressed on the hepatocytes. The hepatocyte-targeting capacity followed MP-Gal-1 < MP-Gal-2 < MP-Gal-3 trend, which was attributed to the galactose cluster effect. MP-Gal-1, MP-Gal-2 and MP-Gal-3 also displayed good lysosomes-targeting capacities, because the basic morpholine moiety of probes could be easily attracted by the acidic lysosome. Therefore, MP-Gal-1, MP-Gal-2 and MP-Gal-3 have good dual targeting capacities (liver and lysosome) and could be used to detect lysosomal Fe³⁺ in the liver, which is great significant for precise diagnosis and treatment of liver lysosomal iron-related diseases.

A fluorescent probe for rapid detection of low concentration mercury ions and its application in biological cells

As a toxic substance, mercury can easily cause harm to organisms and humans. The development of methods that allow rapid detection of low concentrations of mercury ions has a positive effect on the natural environment and human health. The fluorescent probe RBSH reported in this paper has a detection limit as low as 5.9 nM, and a fast response time and allows naked eye detection. We characterized its structure by nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry, and explored the response mechanism of the probe using Job's plot, and ¹H NMR and mass spectrometry. UV-vis spectrophotometry and fluorescence spectroscopy show the excellent optical properties of the probe RBSH. The low toxicity and high cell penetration capacity demonstrated by the cellular assay open up the possibility of biological experiments. By selecting hosts (natural water samples, soybean plants and zebrafish) where mercury ions are likely to be present in the biological chain for low concentration Hg²⁺ detection, the results all demonstrated the excellent performance of the probe RBSH.

A novel fluorescent probe of aluminium ions based on rhodamine derivatives and its application in biological imaging

A new type of probe can be used for the detection of Al³⁺ in biological cells.

Recent Advances on Iron(III) Selective Fluorescent Probes with Possible Applications in Bioimaging

Iron(III) is well-known to play a vital role in a variety of metabolic processes in almost all living systems, including the human body. However, the excess or deficiency of Fe3+ from the normal permissible limit can cause serious health problems. Therefore, novel analytical methods are developed for the simple, direct, and cost-effective monitoring of Fe3+ concentration in various environmental and biological samples. Because of the high selectivity and sensitivity, fast response time, and simplicity, the fluorescent-based molecular probes have been developed extensively in the past few decades to detect Fe3+. This review was narrated to summarize the Fe3+-selective fluorescent probes that show fluorescence enhancement (turn-on) and ratiometric response. The Fe3+ sensing ability, mechanisms along with the analytical novelties of recently reported 77 fluorescent probes are discussed.