Latest ArticlesTyrosinase (TYR) is an important polyphenolic oxidase enzyme and usually regards as a biomarker of melanoma cancer. Highly effective tracking TYR activity in vivo will help to study the mechanism of TYR in living organisms and forecasts related diseases. In this study, we present a novel TYR-activatable fluorescent probe (CHMC-DOPA) for tracking TYR activity in vitro and in vivo. CHMC-DOPA is constructed by incorporating dopamine (DOPA) moiety into a fluorescent chloro-hydroxyl-merocyanine (CHMC) scaffold. Upon exposure to TYR, the dopamine unit in CHMC-DOPA is oxidized to a dopaquinone derivative, and an intramolecular photo-induced electron transfer (PET) process between CHMC fluorophore and o-dopaquinone will take place, the fluorescence of CHMC-DOPA is quenched rapidly. Therefore, the evaluation of TYR activity is established in terms of the relationship between fluorescence quenching efficiency and TYR activity. In our experiments, CHMC-DOPA shows various advantages, such as fast response (8 min), low concentration of TYR activation (0.5 U/mL), good water-solubility, as well as the lowest detection limit (0.003 U/mL) compared with previously reported works. Furthermore, CHMC-DOPA also exhibits excellent cell membrane permeability and low cytotoxicity, which is successfully used to monitor endogenous TYR activity in living cancer cells and zebrafish models. CHMC-DOPA performs well, and we anticipate that this newly designed novel platform will provide an alternative for high effective monitoring TYR activity in biosystems.
Understanding the physical mechanisms governing aggregation-induced-emission (AIE) and aggregation-caused-quenching plays a vital role in developing functional AIE materials. In this work, tetraphenylethene (TPE, a classical AIEgen) and naphthalimide (NI, a popular fluorophore with ACQ characteristics) were connected through non-conjugated linkages and conjugated linkages. We showed that the nonconjugated-linkage of TPE to NI fragments leads to substantial PET in molecular aggregates and ACQ. In contrast, the conjugated connection between TPE and NI moieties results in the AIE phenomenon by suppressing twisted intramolecular charge transfer. This work provides an important guideline for the rational design of AIE materials.
The reactive oxygen species (ROS) are tightly associated with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Thus, the deep and visual insight of aberrant ROS fluctuations in the ER can help us better investigate the ER stress-associated pathology. In this work, a fluorescent probe ERC for HOCl detection in the ER based on phenothiazine-derived coumarin platform was developed. In the presence of HOCl, ERC exhibited an emission change from 609 nm to 503 nm within seconds. It also showed high sensitivity (0.44 μmol/L) and superb photostability. Significantly, ERC displayed low cytotoxicity, good cell membrane permeability, and appreciable ER-targetability. Ultimately, the probe was successfully utilized to image exogenous and endogenous HOCl in living cells and reveal the HOCl burst in cisplatin-treated cancer cells.
Based on 4-bromo-1, 8-naphthalic anhydride, one novel ratiometric fluorescence H2S-probe (IDNA) was designed and synthesized. Further studies indicate that IDNA can sensitively recognize H2S (detection limit of 7 μmol/L) with good selectivity and anti-interference ability. In addition, IDNA has satisfactory photostability in HeLa cells, ability of mitochondrial co-localization, and can be utilized in fluorescence imaging of H2S.
Autophagy plays a vital role in maintaining the balance of normal physiological state of living cells. In this paper, a polarity-specific two-photon fluorescent probe Lyso-NA based on naphthalimide was synthesized for the purpose of monitoring autophagy during biological research. The results of photophysical properties and theoretical calculation confirmed that different polarities of solvents mainly effected fluorescent intensities of probe. Fluorescent intensity, quantum yield and fluorescence lifetime of probe kept a good linear relationship with polarity respectively. In addition, due to its low toxicity and selective accumulation in lysosomes, Lyso-NA is suitable for detecting changes in lysosomal polarity of living cells. Compare with the imaging results of plasmid transfection, a better performed real-time long-term fluorescent visualization of autophagy in living cells was achieved. Probe Lyso-NA can work as an efficient and cost effective imaging tool for visualizing autophagy in living cells.
We constructed a reaction-based near-infrared fluorescent probe (Niap) to specifically identify alkaline phosphatase (ALP) with fast red fluorescence enhancement. Based on the positive concentration-dependent manner between the fluorescent intensity of the Niap and ALP, probe Niap was used to study the ALP enrichment and variation in golden apple snails (Pomacea canaliculata) exposed to the molluscicide candidate PPU06. After treatment with different concentrations of PPU06 over various times, three organs of the surviving snails, liver, stomach and plantaris, were frozen and sectioned for fluorescent imaging experiments. With increased PPU06 concentration, red fluorescence substantially increased in the liver and reached a maximum within 24 h when the PPU06 concentration was 0.75 mg/L. No obvious changes in the stomach or foot plantaris were found. It showed PPU06 caused liver injury and stimulated the increase of ALP in the liver of P. canaliculata. This study demonstrates a rapid ALP fluorescent identification method that can be used to study the effects of PPU06 on P. canaliculata. It also provides optical evidence that may aid in the discovery of new chemistry for snail control.
Acetaminophen (ACE) is commonly used in analgesic and antipyretic drug, which is hardly removed by traditional wastewater treatment processes. Herein, amorphous Co(OH)2 nanocages were explored as peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activator for efficient degradation of ACE. In the presence of amorphous Co(OH)2 nanocages, 100% of ACE removal was reached within 2 min with a reaction rate constant k1 = 3.68 min-1 at optimum pH 5, which was much better than that of crystalline β-Co(OH)2 and Co3O4. Amorphous materials (disorder atom arrangement) with hollow structures possess large specific surface area, more reactive sites, and abundant vacancies structures, which could efficiently facilitate the catalytic redox reactions. The radicals quenching experiment demonstrated that SO4·- radicals dominated the ACE degradation rather than ·OH radicals. The mechanism of ACE degradation was elucidated by the analysis of degradation intermediates and theoretical calculation, indicating that the electrophilic SO4·- and ·OH tend to attack the atoms of ACE with high Fukui index (f-). Our finding highlights the remarkable advantages of amorphous materials as heterogeneous catalysts in sulfate radicals-based AOPs and sheds new lights on water treatment for the degradation of emerging organic contaminants.
A Zn-containing graphite carbon (Zn-GC) with uniform Zn metal sites and hierarchical pore structure was obtained by pyrolysis of Zn-based metal organic framework (MOF). Zn-GC exhibited excellent adsorption capacity and reproducibility for formaldehyde. The adsorption capacity of Zn-GC was 736 times that of commercial activated carbon and 5.6 times that of ZSM-5 adsorbents. The characterization and experimental results showed that the surface chemical characteristics of the adsorption material play an important role in the adsorption performance. The superior performance was attributed to Zn metal sites and oxygen-containing functional groups on the MOF derivative as well as hierarchical pore structure. The material showed a great potential in the field of organic pollutant removal.
Maximizing adsorption and catalytic active sites and promoting the photo-excited charge separation are two key factors to achieve excellent photocatalytic performance. In this study, we report a sol-gel synthesis approach to obtain non-metal doped TiO2 with sponge-like structure and surface-phase junctions all at once. While doping of carbon and nitrogen shifted the activation wavelength to the visible-light region, the innovative use of perchloric acid as a pore-making agent led to the formation of three-dimensional lamellar and porous structure with surface-phase junctions. High surface area with catalytic active sites rendered by the sponge-like structure and surface-phase junctions contributed to the much improved photocatalytic degradation efficiency toward rhodamine B, tetracycline and Disperse Red 60 with excellent reusability and stability. The improved generation and separation efficiency of the photo-induced charge carriers of the as-prepared TiO2 were supported by electrochemical impedance measurements and transient photocurrent responses. This method could also be applied to other photocatalysts to achieve structural alteration and element doping simultaneously.
Exosomes have attracted widespread interest due to their inherent advantages in tumor diagnosis and treatment monitoring. However, it is still a big challenge for highly sensitive and specific detection of exosome in real complexed samples. Herein, a molecular recognition triggered aptazyme cascade strategy was developed for ultrasensitive detection of cancer exosomes in clinical serum samples. In this design, one target exosome could capture a large quantity of aptazymes for the first-step signal amplification. And then the captured aptazyme was activated and recycled to release the fluorophore-abelled substrate strand for a cascaded signal amplification. Notably, the activation of aptazyme only occurs when it has bound with target exosome, ensuring a low background. The experimental results show that the limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantification (LOQ) are 3.5×103 particles/μL and 1.7×104 particles/μL, respectively, which is comparable to the results of most existed fluorescence-based exosome probes. Moreover, this assay possesses high specificity to distinguish exosomes derived from other cell lines. Furthermore, this fluorescence probe was utilized in cancer patient and healthy serum samples successfully, suggesting its great potential for clinical diagnosis and biological studies.
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