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Highly selective fluorescent peptide–based chemosensors for aluminium ions in aqueous solution

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Abstract

Two novel fluorescent peptide–based chemosensors, including A (2-amino-benzoyl-Ser-Glu-Glu-NH2) and B (2-amino-benzoyl-Ala-Glu-Pro-Glu-Ala-Glu-Pro-NH2) were synthesized and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra. These fluorescent probes exhibited excellent selective and sensitive responses to Al3+ ions over other metal ions in aqueous buffered solutions. The limits of detection for both chemosensors towards the Al3+ ions were in the order of ∼10−7 M (A: 155 nM and B: 195 nM), which clearly indicates that these probes have significant potential for biological applications. They also displayed high binding affinity (1.3029 × 104 M−1 and 1.7586 × 104 M−1 relevant to A and B respectively). These two chemosensors are great analytical probes that produce turn-on responses upon binding to Al3+ ions through an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism. In addition, the application of both chemosensors was examined over a wide range of pH. The fluorescent peptide–based probes and Al3+ form a 1:1 coordination complex according to the ESI-MS and Job’s plot analysis. Notably, upon addition of Al3+ to these chemosensors, a fluorescence enhancement of approximately 8-fold was observed and the binding mode was determined using NMR titration and fluorescence emission data.

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We gratefully acknowledge the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) for financial support.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, P.O. Box 15875-4416, Tehran, Iran

    Sorour Ramezanpour, Hamed Barzinmehr, Pezhman Shiri & Mehrdad Mehrazar

  2. University of Hamburg, Martin-Luther-King Platz 6, 20146, Hamburg, Germany

    Chris Meier

  3. Phytochemistry Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1434875451, Iran

    Seyed Abdulmajid Ayatollahi

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  1. Sorour Ramezanpour
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Ramezanpour, S., Barzinmehr, H., Shiri, P. et al. Highly selective fluorescent peptide–based chemosensors for aluminium ions in aqueous solution. Anal Bioanal Chem 413, 3881–3891 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-021-03339-y

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