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Updated: Feb 5, 2026

Preparation of Quality Inositol Pyrophosphates
Published on: September 3, 2011
Development of a near-infrared fluorescent sensor with a large Stokes shift for sensing pyrophosphate in living cells
Shengjun Yang1, Weiyong Feng1, Guoqiang Feng1
1Key Laboratory of Pesticide and Chemical Biology of Ministry of Education, Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Pesticide and Green Synthesis, College of Chemistry, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China.
Abstract:
The detection of pyrophosphate (PPi) in living systems has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to its biological significance. While many fluorescent PPi sensors were developed with emission changes in the visible region, near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent sensors for PPi are rather scarce. In this paper, a dicyanomethylene-benzopyran (DCMB) based phenol-bridged dinuclear Zn(II)-DPA (DPA: dipicolylamine) complex was prepared, which was found to be a promising NIR fluorescent sensor for PPi. This sensor features a remarkable large Stokes shift (>150 nm) and shows colorimetric and NIR fluorescence changes for PPi with high selectivity and sensitivity in 100% aqueous solution. The detection limit of this sensor for PPi was determined to be as low as 42 nM. In addition, this sensor exhibits low cytotoxicity and can be conveniently employed for bioimaging PPi in living cells and animals, indicating it has great potential for in vitro and in vivo detection of PPi.
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