Abstract
A smart fluorescent probe DPAS-Cys has been rationally designed based on a typical AIEgen DPAS and an acrylate moiety. The probe DPAS-Cys not only can be used for the detection of cysteine (Cys) selectively with large Stokes shift (200 nm) and relatively low detection limit (2.4 μM), but also shows lipid droplets (LDs) targeting property. The response mechanism for Cys was carefully verified. Importantly, due to the aggregation-induced emission characteristic, the introduction of considerable percentage of traditional organic solvent is avoidable, which makes it suitable for bioimaging in physiological systems. In addition, the confocal fluorescence imaging demonstrates that DPAS-Cys is able to detect Cys in LDs of different cell lines with universality. Our study opens a new avenue to understand the importance of LDs in biosystem, for which the gap between the essential biothiol Cys and the energy storage organelle LDs was bridged for the first time.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 20-28 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Analytica Chimica Acta |
Volume | 1127 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 29 Aug 2020 |
Keywords
- Aggregation-induced emission
- Cell imaging
- Cysteine detection
- Fluorescent probe
- Lipid droplets