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Published on: May 13, 2020
Dual-Readout Tyrosinase Activity Assay Facilitated by a Chromo-Fluorogenic Reaction between Catechols and
Jiahui Zhao1,2, Guoyong Liu1,3, Jian Sun1
1State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry , Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Changchun , Jilin 130022 , China.
Abstract:
Analyte-responsive chromo-fluorogenic reactions under accessible conditions are important for designing small-molecule spectroscopic probes. We describe a series of newly constructed motifs based on the chromo-fluorogenic reaction between catechol derivatives (typically hydroxytyrosol, dopamine, and levodopa) and naphthoresorcin (NR) in aqueous solution under ambient conditions. The weakly absorptive and fluorogenic catechols/NR was converted to products having visible absorption and bright fluorescence within several minutes. The chromo-fluorophores produced from this reaction had a maximum absorbance at 458 nm and emission at 480 nm with high fluorescence quantum yields (30-84%). Inspired by the tyrosinase-catalyzed hydroxylation of monophenols to catechols, the tyrosinase-enabled chromo-fluorogenic reaction was verified by using monophenol (typically tyrosol) as the substrate. In this regard, a dual-readout tyrosinase activity assay was developed by virtue of the in situ "turn-on" optical signals. Furthermore, a test of tyrosinase inhibition, by using a common inhibitor kojic acid, demonstrated the potential of the chromo-fluorogenic reaction for developing other tyrosinase related assays and signal transduction.

