A red emissive fluorescent turn-on sensor for the rapid detection of selenocysteine and its application in living cells imaging

Abstract

The content of selenocysteine in cells has an important effect on a variety of human diseases, and the detection of selenocysteine by fluorescent sensors in vivo has shown many advantages. In order to further develop fast-reaction-time, good-selectivity, and high-sensitivity long-wavelength selenocysteine fluorescent sensors, we designed and synthesized the compound YZ-A4 as a turn-on fluorescent sensor to detect the content of selenocysteine. The quantitative detection range of the sensor YZ-A4 to selenocysteine was from 0 to 32 µM, and the detection limit was as low as 11.2 nM. The sensor displayed a rapid turn-on response, good selectivity, and high sensitivity to selenocysteine. Finally, we have demonstrated that YZ-A4 could be used for fluorescence imaging of selenocysteine in living cells.