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Published on: February 7, 2018
Coumarin/BODIPY Hybridisation for Ratiometric Sensing of Intracellular Polarity Oscillation
Yang Bai1, Xiangchao Shi1, Yuncong Chen1
1State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, Coordination Chemistry Institute, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, P.R. China.
Abstract:
With different polarity responses, coumarin and 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY) were hybridised to construct polarity fluorescent sensors, CBDP and iso-CBDP, to overcome the disadvantages of solvatochromic sensors in ratiometric polarity sensing. Only CBDP displayed an emission ratio (ICou /IBDP , coumarin to BODIPY emissions) that increased with an exponential dependence on medium relative permittivity over a wide polarity range (ϵr <57.9). This sensing ability of CBDP was not affected by medium pH; viscosity; and most intracellular species, especially reactive oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur species. Apart from local cytoplasmic polarity quantification through lambda imaging, CBDP enables real-time ratiometric imaging for intracellular polarity oscillation induced by oxidative stimulation. Ratiometric polarity flow cytometry was developed, for the first time, with CBDP, which demonstrated that a high concentration H2 O2 induced cytoplasmic polarity enhancement, whereas pre-incubation with N-acetyl-l-cysteine inhibited this effect.
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