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Synthesis of fluorescent nanoprobe with simultaneous response to intracellular pH and Zn2+ for tumor cell distinguishment

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Abstract

A novel dual-functional nanoprobe was designed and synthesized by facile assembly of quinoline derivative (PEIQ) and meso-tetra (4-carboxyphenyl) porphine (TCPP) via electrostatic interaction for simultaneous sensing of fluorescence of Zn2+ and pH. Under the single-wavelength excitation at 400 nm, this nanoprobe not only exhibits “OFF-ON” green fluorescence at 512 nm by specific PEIQ-Zn2+ chelation, but also presents red fluorescence enhancement at 654 nm by H+-triggered TCPP release. The nanoprobe demonstrated excellent sensing performance with a good linear range (Zn2+, 1–40 μM; pH, 5.0–8.0), low detection limit (Zn2+, 0.88 μM), and simultaneous response towards Zn2+ and pH in pure aqueous solution within 2 min. More importantly, this dual-functional nanoprobe demonstrates the capability of discerning cancerous cells from normal cells, as evidenced by the fact that cancerous HepG2 cells in tumor microenvironment exhibit substantially higher red fluorescence and significantly lower green fluorescence than normal HL-7702 cells. The simultaneous, real-time fluorescence imaging of multiple analytes in a living system could be significant for cell analysis and tracking, cancer diagnosis, and even fluorescence-guided surgery of tumors.

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Funding

This work was partially supported by the National Scientific Foundation of China (81901808) and the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (S2017A030313076, 2020A1515010661).

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Author notes

  1. Qin Wang and Yupeng Shi contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Sensing Technology and Biomedical Instruments (Guangdong Province), School of Biomedical Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen, 518107, People’s Republic of China

    Qin Wang, Wandi Chen & Changqing Yi

  2. State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, 510060, People’s Republic of China

    Qin Wang

  3. Department of MRI, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450001, People’s Republic of China

    Yupeng Shi

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, People’s Republic of China

    Mo Yang

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  1. Qin Wang
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Correspondence to Changqing Yi.

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Wang, Q., Shi, Y., Chen, W. et al. Synthesis of fluorescent nanoprobe with simultaneous response to intracellular pH and Zn2+ for tumor cell distinguishment. Microchim Acta 188, 9 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-020-04682-0

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