Application of a Novel “Turn-on” Fluorescent Material to the Detection of Aluminum Ion in Blood Serum

Abstract

A novel "turn-on" fluorescent bioprobe, 1,2,3,4,5-penta(4-carboxyphenyl)pyrrole sodium salt (PPPNa), with aggregation-enhanced emission characteristics was synthesized for the in situ quantitative detection of Al in serum. It exhibited a high selectivity to Al in both simulated serum and fetal calf serum with no interferences from other metal ions or serum components observed and no isolation required. A weak interaction between PPPNa and serum albumin was found, which caused no interference, but enhanced fluorescence response of PPPNa to Al and improved detection sensitivity. The limit of detection was determined to be 1.50 μmol/L Al in phosphate-buffered saline solution containing 33 μg/mL bovine serum albumin (BSA) and decreased to 0.98 μmol/L as BSA concentration increased to 100 μg/mL. The fluorescence "turn-on" mechanism of the PPPNa probe to detect Al was proposed. A bidentate complex is formed between the carboxy group of PPPNa and Al, causing the photoluminescence (PL) emission enhancement by aggregation. BSA chains further strengthen the stacking compactness of the aggregates of PPPNa and Al and consequently enhance the PL emission of PPPNa by further promoting the restriction of intramolecular rotation of the phenyl ring. Its application to the in situ Al was successfully demonstrated with HeLa cells and NIH 3T3 cells. The low cytotoxicity and highly selective response of PPPNa to Al endow its great potentials to in vivo detecting and imaging of Al as well as an absorbent of Al.

Squaraine Dyes: Interaction with Bovine Serum Albumin to Investigate Supramolecular Adducts with Aggregation‐Induced Emission (AIE) Properties

“…[6] Volkova et al also tried to study the influence of the dyes structures (a series of squaraines) on the selectivity towards differentp roteins (BSA, human serum albumin, ovalbumin anda vidin). [16] The squaraine "turn on" fluorescenceu pon association with BSA [17] can be attributed to ac hange in environmenta fter complexation with BSA. [18] This was deeplys tudied by Gao et al [19] who attributed this effect to the releaseo ft he squaraine dyef rom the non-fluorescent H-aggregates by the formationo fas quaraine-protein adduct.…”

“…It is therefore evident that there is an urgent need and challenge for the development of novel fluorescent probes to serve as ap latform for av ariety of applications and these adducts are very interesting since they can be used as effective bioimaging probeso ra ss ensors, [20,21] as photothermal absorber agents with improved photodestruction efficacy [19] or for photoacoustic tomography. [22] Moreover,B SA-dyes adducts can be of the utmost importance for the preparation of protein biophosphors for white emission, sensing and pH detection, [23] Solid-state lighting (SSL) based on Biological Materials, [24] detection and quantitationo fi ons [12,17,25] and others peciesi n blood serum or the development of bio-hybrid white LEDs (Bio-HWLEDs). [26] In this scenario, since the importance of these adducts,i n the presentp aper we show our results on at hermodynamic and kinetic study undertaken on the interaction between BSA and as eries of squaraine dyes, with different substitutions.…”

A highly selective aggregation‐induced emission fluorogen for sensitive detection of Al3+ in living cells

“…Among these methods, fluorescence probes have been widely welcomed due to their simple processing, signal stabilization, reliable performance, and fast response . Although some fluorescent probes for Al 3+ have reported monitoring or visualization of Al 3+ with excellent detection performance, only a few probes based on aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) molecules have been developed . Organic fluorophores with AIE characteristics can completely eradicate the aggregation‐caused quenching effect.…”

Nano-aggregates of furan-2-carbohydrazide derivatives displaying enhanced emission with a bathochromic shift

“…Hence, a great deal of effort has been put into studying the optical properties of molecules displaying ESIPT with AIE. [12][13][14] Several such molecules have been reported. The Yang group, 15 for example, has obtained nanoscale homodispersed organic aggregates in poor solvents using the reprecipitation method and showed these aggregates displaying p-p stacking interactions.…”