Copper is an essential trace element in the physiology of living organisms as many critical proteins and enzymes contain copper in their active sites or/and require copper for their activities.
Disruption of copper levels in cells can cause diseases such as Menkes syndrome, Wilson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Alzheimer’s. Therefore, the quantitative detection of intracellular copper could help with the understanding of its complex physiological and pathological roles.
Unlike other trace metals such as zinc, iron, chromium and mercury, which can be successfully detected with rhodamine-based fluorescence probes, the detection of copper has proven to be more challenging and the development of satisfactory fluorescent probes needs addressing.
Bao-Xiang Zhao, Jun-Ying Miao and colleagues at Shandong University in China have now developed a rhodamine chromene-based fluorescence probe to monitor the intracellular levels of copper in living cells. The probe switches to a highly fluorescent complex upon coordination with copper under physiological conditions in a very sensitive and selective manner and facilitates the naked-eye detection of the metal.
If you want to learn more about this satisfactory fluorescent probe I invite you to download this paper that is free to access until 15th June.
Synthesis, crystal structure and living cell imaging of a Cu2+-specific molecular probe
Wei-Yong Liu, Hai-Ying Li, Bao-Xiang Zhao and Jun-Ying Miao
Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1OB05358B
